For the third successive year the IWA National Table Tennis Championships was held in partnership with the Irish Table Tennis Association National Championships at the excellent ALSAA sports complex Dublin Airport.
Playing commenced at 9.30am with Wheelchair Men’s and Ladies Single’s as usual at any wheelchair event players were determined to prove their worth and they provided an excellent days Table Tennis of the highest standard.
In the ladies Kathleen Reynolds was looking to hold on to her title with wins over Eimear Breathnach and ever improving Christine Doyle, But it was the raider from the west in the shape of Rena Mc Carron Rooney who came through the day beating all before her without dropping a set, and take her first National Ladies Title a measure of the improvement in her game over the last year.
In the Men’s competition Michael Cunningham was there to retain his title but several of his rivals had other ideas.
In a nail biting battle semi final John Finn lost out to training partner Paul Mc Evoy in a close 5 setter. While in the other semi John Dempsey tried to contain the attacking capabilities of Mick Cunningham, Mick proved to strong and went on to meet Paul Mc Evoy in the final played on center court winning an entertaining best of 7 set match 4 nil. New recruit Gareth Greene made his debut in this event with a performance showing his potential for the future
In after noon the mixed doubles competition was held this time Mick Cunningham teamed up with John Dempsey to win this event in a top class match beating the Hungarian Open bound pairing of Ronan Rooney and Philip Quinlan.
National Coach Paul Dolan felt it was an excellent day’s table tennis with some great performances from individual players and a great preparation for squad members travelling to the Hungarian Open this week as part of their Paralympic qualification program.
NEWSFLASH – Hungary Open Results
Philip Quinlan narrowly missed out on a gold medal in the Class 1 Mens losing a hard fought final and takes a Silver medal.While in the Ladies Class 1/2 Rena Mc Carron Rooney brings home the Bronze.Rooney and partner Eimear Breatneach reach semi final ladies double on Sunday.