The National Award recipients were presented by the President, Tony Martin at the Annual General Meeting on the 10th of June 2023, in the Conference Room at the Irish Sports HQ.
This year’s Joe Veselsky Award in recognition of endeavour and achievement on behalf of the Association has been awarded to Oliver Adamson. Oliver has been successful as an administrator, a player and an organiser. A member of the ITTA Board where he was a representative of the Veterans game. Oliver led an organising committee for the 6 Nations Veterans Championships in 2006 in Belfast which ran very smoothly.
He had a successful life as a player with some 75 caps as a Veteran. He won several 6 Nations championships with Tommy Caffrey, along with other Irish Veterans ranking events including Irish Closed Doubles. During his time as Chair of the Veterans Association a proper ranking system was introduced.
Besides all the other work he was involved in, he was General Secretary of the Dublin Business Houses League from 1968 until 1977. Aided by a vibrant committee, the league became the largest of its type in Europe during his tenure.
A very worthy winner!
The Senior Male Player of the Year has been awarded to Tom Davis and Senior Female Player of the Year to Mia O’Rahilly Egan.
Other Awards decided are:
Junior Male Player of the Year: Peadar Sheridan
Junior Female Player of the Year: Anjali Singh
Para Player of the Year: Paddy Vaughan
Young Coach of the Year: Conor Nugent
Male Coach of the Year: Gavin Maguire
Female Coach of the Year: Tara Fusco
Volunteer of the Year: Philip Shaw
Club of the Year: Ormeau Table Tennis Club Belfast
School of the Year: Grosvenor Grammar School
International Performance of the year: Irish Team at the Oster Cup (Germany).
Irish Under 19 Girls Team: Gold Medal (Anjali Singh, Grace Looney, Niamh Mason)
Irish Under 19 Boys Team: Silver Medal (Tom Colvin, James Skelton, Ben Watson and Adam Faulkner)
Gold Medal in Under 19 Girls Singles: Anjali Singh
Gold Medal in Under 19 Boys Singles: Tom Colvin
The end of Season Underage Irish No.1’s were also announced at the AGM and presented as follows:
Irish No. 1 – Under 19 Boys 2022/23: Johnathan Mooney
Irish No.1 – Under 15 Boys 2022/23: Vincent Ni
Irish No. 1 – Under 13 Boys 2022/23: Peadar Sheridan
Irish No. 1 – Under 19 Girls 2022/23: Anjali Singh
Irish No.1 – Under 15 Girls 2022/23: Lily Parke
Irish No. 1 – Under 13 Girls 2022/23: Ahna McDonnell
Congratulations to all recipients of these awards.