The 2nd United Kingdom Chinese Table Tennis Championship has been a barrier breaking the generation

The 2nd UKCTTA Singles Championship was held at Dulwich College Sports Centre on 29th August 2004. This event was organised by the United Kingdom Chinese Table Tennis Association (UKCTTA). It was an eventful day packed with very tight schedules commencing at 10 am with a Lion Dance exhibition by the Luk Chi Fu Martial Arts Federation UK Branch headed by Toby wong. With nearly 100 participants turning up that day, the event was full of fun and excitement.

David Fung the UKCTTA Chairman, , urged all players to try their best to win the tournament to gain experience and to meet like-minded table tennis players in order to promote the table tennis sport within the Chinese community in the UK.

The Treasurer and Management Committee member, Javad Ameri, was an Iranian national player,was trained by a Chinese coach when he was young. He is very enthusiastic in promoting table tennis within the Chinese community in the UK and is a founder member of the UKCTTA.

Ameri reckons Ryu Seung-Min, the South Korean who won the gold medal of the Olympic Men’s Single Table Tennis event in Athens (China took the other 3 table tennis gold medals) was the result of swift and powerful attacking tactics overpowering Wang Hao who relied too much on his back-hand back side play.

He pointed out that although England invented table tennis in the 19th century, there was very limited funding to promote the game in the UK. In fact, a large proportion of the sports funding in the UK actually went into more popular games like football, cricket, rugby, tennis and athletics. One was the Table Tennis Scholarship at the London South Bank University, which only offered up to GBP 3,000 per annum financial support to a maximum of 9 talented young table tennis players. Understandabley that it would not be easy to be a professional table tennis player in the UK.

however, there are still a number of Chinese in the UK who are keen and enthusiastic with table tennis.

Charles Ho, an accountant and an ex-Hong Kong player who, sacrified by reducing 50% of his business so as to find time to train his 10 years old son, Ping Ho, and 5 years old daughter, Tin Tin Ho personally. He made a substantial investment in buying a property in West London making it a proper table tennis training place with 4 tables and a robot machine.

His son, Ping Ho, has been selected by the ETTA as a member of the Youth Development Squad. His ultimate aim is to represent Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic Games in the table tennis event.

Mrs Lam, who is a ETTA level 2 table tennis coaching table tennis in Wandsworth, accompanied her daughters, Wing Kei (age 11) and Kai Yan (age 9) in the tournament.

After intense competitions, Shi Guang – the 21 years old student of Leeds University studying BA in “Environment Management” emarged as the senior men’s champion. The first runner-up was Paolo Cheng , the Tournament Director and a very experienced table tennis player. The 2nd runner-up was Perry Fung , Secretary of the UKCTTA.

For the under-18 group event, the winner was Simon Wong. Kaho Cheung was second and the third place went to Ka Man Hui.

The champion of the under-14 boys’ event was Ka Man Hui, 1st runner-up Ping Ho and 2nd runner-up Stephen Kong.

The winner of the under-14 girls’ group was Yie Yue Wong, runner-up Wing Kei Lam and third Tin Tin Ho.

Two special prizes went to Yun Loa Yau and Ka Yau Ma for commitment in participation.

Prizes for the winners were attractive. In addition to the trophies and cash prizes, the senior champion received a return flight to China.

The event was sponsored by See Woo Travel, Sun Wah Fishball, New Peninsula Restaurant and Speedy Noodle Restaurant.

The UKCTTA is a non-profit making association. It’s aim is to promote table tennis in the Chinese Community across the UK. If you are interested to know more about it, please contact either Perry Fung on 07944 541212 or David Fung on 07050 108308 or visit the website www.ukctta.org.