Posts in category: TTI News

Fatih Sport Complex in Istanbul awaits the greatest superstars of today’s table tennis at the second Leg of Euro Asia All Star Series. World’s best ranked player China’s WANG Hao will be at the front of the Asian side that will challenge the Europeans led by the Old Continent’s no. 1 German Timo BOLL. The Event in Turkey is scheduled for the November 10th and 11th.

In the European team, BOLL will play alongside Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus, Michale MAZE of Denmark, Werner SCHLAGER of Austria, Kalinikos KREANGA of Greece. Gencay MENGE received wild card as a host nation representative. Turkish player will play two exhibition matches on both competition days.

The Asian team coach CHAN Kong Wah from Hong Kong , beside the Chinese superstar WANG Hao, invited JOO See Yuk of Korea, CHUANG Chih Yuan of Taipei, Hong Kong’s LI Ching and GAO Ning of Singapore.

In Beijing on first Leg of the Euro Asia Event, Europe lost 6:4 (on aggregate) in August. Michael MAZE of Denmark and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany won two matches each. This time Timo BOLL is confident that Europe’s team can do even better.

“Vladi is back after the World Cup, Michael is strong and Kalin, Werner and I try as well our best. We have a good team,” said the player who proved so many times before that he is equal to the Chinese superstars. 

Pan European sport channel EUROPSORT will cover the two days event. On first day coverage will last two hours from 5.30 PM to 7.30 PM, next day the coverage starts at 5 pm and ends at 7 pm CET. The unforgettable inauguration stage of the Euro Asia All Star Series Event at the Bospforus Bridge this summer in Istanbul was fantastic experience that moved the table tennis sport boundaries. Return to the city where East meets the West in November with such heavy list of superstars promising another fantastic journey.

The Junior Girls team of Ashley Givan, Sara Dolan, Sara Timlin and Edel O’Reilly performed magnificently to top their group against some very strong opposition. What’s interesting about this team is that each girl represents a different province, with all the 4 provinces of Ireland being represented.

All the girls contributed to put in an excellent team display. Performance of the weekend went to Ashley Givan who beat the highly rated English U13 number 1 Tin Tin Ho 3-0. Ashley also showed fantastic composure coupled with great play when she was 7-10 down in the fifth against Vicky Smith from Bridge Club, and came back to win 13-11. Ashley, still only 14 years old played at number 1 the whole weekend and won a fantastic 9 out of 10 matches. Edel O’Reilly in her first outing in this competition performed brilliantly winning 4 out of 4, scoring a very good win against the highly ranked Tressa Armitage. Edel is still a cadet and has many more years in this competition to come.

Sarah Timlin has vastly improved recently and had an excellent never say die attitude all weekend, coming back from several setand match points down to win many tight fifth setters. Sarah can be very proud winning 6 of her 8 matches in her first outing at this tournament. Sara Dolan in her last year as a junior also performed well to beat Tressa Armitage and was unlucky to lose several matches in the 5^th set.

 The team currently lead by one point with the nearest challenger being DHS Greenhouse Progress 1 and have put themselves in an excellent position to challenge for honours in the final weekend of this competition.

Amanda Mogey(NPC)

A young Irish cadet squad travelled to Bridlington on the English east coast over the weekend, to compete in the East Yorkshire Cadet Open – a 4 star ranked tournament – which attracted over 100 players, including some of the top Cadet players from England, Scotland and Wales.

The squad consisting of the BoysTeam of Ryan Farrell, Neil Irwin, Kevin Hutchinson and Johnny Porter and Girls Team of Sarah Cooney, Katie McGlone, Elayna McGlone and Orla Timlin was largely a developmental squad that included players that will have another 1,2,3 or in some cases, a further 4 years at the Cadet level. Under the direction of the NPC’s Shay Logue and Louise Long, and the ITTA’s Technical Director, John O’Donoghue, the players had the opportunity to compete against some of the top UK Cadets, and the experience and information gathered over the weekend will be invaluable in their future training programme.

The highlight of the weekend proved to be Katie McGlone’s performance on Saturday in the U12 singles where the 9 year old finished runner up to the number 1 seed and English Champion, Tin Tin Ho. The prospect of playing England’s finest did not faze the talented Katie, who displayed a spirited performance , but was defeated by the experienced Tin Tin. This was Katie’s only defeat during the event, which included an impressive win over the number 2 seed, Emily Bolton.
The Irish did not compete in the U12 Boys event, which was won by the Scottish 10 year old wizzard, Christopher Wheeler.

The Cadet Team event pitched the 4 Irish teams against strong opposition in the group stages, and despite some spirited performances from Neil Irwin and Sarah Cooney, with some 15 deuce games that went against the Irish, the teams did not progress to the knockout stages. The Boys event was won by DHS Greenhouse who surprised by beating the English number 1 team, while the Girls event was completely dominated by England, who included the talented Cathy Bates.

In the Cadet Girls Singles on Sunday, competition was very strong for the younger and inexperienced Irish players.
The event was won by Tressa Armitage who defeated Jessica Dawson 3-1 in the final.

In the Cadet Boys Singles, Sam Walker (Eng) validated his number 1 seeding by beating Igor Morais (Greenhouse) in an exciting final on the scoreline of 3-1.
Best of the Irish boys was Ryan Farrell who progressed from his group to the knockout stages, where he met Ashley Facey-Thompson.
Despite taking the first set with some attacking forehand winners, Ryan was beaten to the last 16 on a score of 1-3 with tight set scores of 9, 9 and 8.

Overall, the standard of this event and quality of the players will prove to be an invaluable experience for these young Irish Cadets, and will provide the NPC’s and Technical Director with a solid benchmark with which to assess their progress in future events.

Gratitude to Shay Logue and Louise Long – NPC’s for the weekend, and to Butterfly, our Official Equipment Sponsor to the National Tea