TABLE TENNIS
By KATRINA BRANDON
TRARALGON is quickly becoming the venue of choice for table tennis across the nation.
Table Tennis Australia (TTA) hosted its final National Hopes Tour of the 2025/26 schedule at the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium from April 13 to 17.
Aimed at those aged under 19, the Hopes Tour included a training camp from Monday to Thursday, where participants were treated to four days of fun, hard work and important lessons, delivered by TTA National Head Coach Ricardo Oliveira, Pathways and Performance Lead Simon Gerada and AIS Gen32 Development Coach Melissa Tapper.
“They (juniors) do a training camp for four days, and on the fifth day, they do a competition to see who wins the overall event,” TTA chief executive Nicole Adamson explained.
“The winner of that then goes through the ITTF, Oceania Hopes Competition, and then the winner of that goes through to the world version of it.”
Other star presenters throughout the week included Australian Olympian Hwan Bae, Table Tennis Australia Integrity Manager Tim Burke, Physiotherapists Brandon Ngo and Jane Yan, Table Tennis India National Coach Anshuman Roy, and VIS Performance Scientist – Skill Acquisition Ryan Hatfield.
Adamson said Hopes Week was a success, seeing a large number of new elite athletes come through.
“To see that we’ve got so many kids at such a talented level coming in and playing really shows the future of the sport that’s ahead of us,” she said.
“If you’ve watched table tennis internationally, anywhere in Asia, it is massive. So for us in Australia, with a growing population of Chinese-Australians, there’s certainly an opportunity for the sport to grow more.
“These kids playing here this week … the youngest here is eight-years-of-age. They’ve probably started since about five. But there’s not one pathway for everybody. We have multiple pathways that you can get involved in. You probably need to be very serious about the sport by nine or 10 to really have a future chance at a high-performance level.”
Looking at one of the pathways that could be the future for some of the star juniors, Adamson said that there is not just growth in Asian communities, but in European also.
Locally, she said that in Australia, many people play table tennis more for recreation than as a sport. Looking at the prospects, Adamson said they are hoping to encourage more people to play for fun, while also identifying talent and helping players grow, possibly leading to opportunities to represent Australia.
Adamson highlighted that some corporate companies are also encouraging table tennis in office settings.
“There are a lot of corporate companies that have table tennis tables in their offices,” she said.
“It’s for finding the connection piece, but it’s also to get up and get a little bit of physical activity and maybe get rid of a bit of stress that’s happening during the day as well.
“There are just so many different reasons you can play table tennis.”
Being with the junior athletes throughout the week, Tapper also highlighted its success.
“It’s been a fantastic week here in Traralgon,” she said.
“We’ve had presentations from some special people, and we hope that this tour has provided more than just on-table practice. Having the presentations every day was so insightful for the children, and it was fantastic for them to listen in and get the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions.”
Seeing the success of the event being in Traralgon for its second year, Adamson said that support from Latrobe City Council had been greatly appreciated.
“Our community now knows that this venue is here,” Adamson told the Express.
“This venue, compared to some of the other venues that we play out of, is substantial. It’s a fantastic venue. All of our players and the families say how good the facilities are here. If and when that eight-year period is up, we’ve got awareness of it, that people respect the facilities here. So it’s almost a no-brainer that, yes, we want to keep coming back here.”
TTA Traralgon Tour
CONSTANT shuffling of floorboards and lots of chatter could be found at the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sporting Stadium (GRISS) at the weekend.
Hosting the only regional spot out of four on the Table Tennis Australia (TTA) Tour, Traralgon welcomed hundreds of players from across Australia to participate in this year’s tournament.
Other tour locations for the “next level” include Perth, Goulburn and Brisbane.
The TTA Tour provides national-level competition opportunities for national squad and non-national squad athletes, with events being professionally presented and managed by TTA.
For players aged 21 and under, with both para and open sections available, the event featured high-level games showcasing the best players from across Australia.
Alongside the high-level games was an intense atmosphere that filled the room, as all individual players showed deep concentration and played at a top-notch level despite their young ages.
Entering the stadium and the first lot of courts on Saturday morning (April 18), recognisable faces in the table tennis community could be seen, with players starting to practice as early as 8am.
Going further down through the courts, intense energy could be felt as intimidating yells rang out from the young elites.
At the other end of the elite stage, younger players could be heard making similar screams, but not quite at the same level as the older players present, with some yelling what could be heard as “Charlie” as they won or lost points, their tone of voice telling people how they were going.
Familiar elite faces (for those in the table tennis world), such as LOOPS players Yousef Hassan, Lucas Lum, Cherry Nguyen Le, and Alice Qunle Xia, as well as Scorpio’s Ariel Li, were seen in the morning. Australian player Ma Lin could also be seen on the sidelines coaching his son through the U11S.
As the event went on, more elite players, such as Sanaya Buddhadasa, Constantine (Connie) Psihogios and Zachary Anstey turned up for the tour.
Psihogios has recently come back from World Table Tennis’ Youth Contender championships, proving a strong player for Victoria.
As newcomers went through each section, they included Alyssa Yeung in the U15 Singles and Maya Hadaan.
While the energy throughout the tournament could be seen as intense, each young player supported one another and ran around the stadium as they waited for their sections to be called.
Raising the heat, tables 13-16 were livestreamed from Traralgon to Table Tennis Australia’s YouTube page.
For younger players, the livestreamed sessions made their game feel important, with other players watching from the sidelines. Despite the high pressure, not a single young elite player lost concentration.
Sunday presented with familiar vibes, but with fewer people. On Sunday, yelling during matches became more frequent, whether it was a winning shot or a sign of frustration during exciting matches.
Games were either tantalisingly close or an absolute smashing.
Some took the games seriously, and others were just there to have fun, have a hit, and to hopefully make some lucky shots, and on the off chance, take their game to the next level, but on a “chill” level.
During the day, most losses were taken with ease, as all recognised it was a tough field of play, but for some, the losses left them in tears.
Tears from knowing they could have played better or losing a chance at the next level: Oceania.
While no locals were playing in the event, those passing through for basketball training or games could be seen enjoying the chaos found from the national event.
