Guam – The Guam Table Tennis Federation welcomes 13 countries to Guam this week for the Calvo Enterprises 2011 Guam Table Tennis Junior & Cadet Open, which is an International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF’s) Global Junior Circuit Event. Over 100 participants from Guam, the CNMI, Palau, Kiribati, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Japan and Korea will compete for the honor’s in both singles, doubles and teams for both the cadet (under 15) and juniors (under 18) categories from April 22-25 at the University of Guam Field House.
Three additional events will also be held concurrently with the Calvo Enterprises 2011 Guam Table Tennis Junior & Cadet Open: the Guam Global Junior Circuit training Camp (April 18-21), the Oceania Cadet Challenge (April 21) and the Oceania World Junior Championships Qualifications (April 22-24).
Guam will see some of the greatest young talents in the sport. Australia’s Lily Phan represented Australia at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and fellow countryman Angela Zhan is Australia’s youngest player at 10 years old. Palau’s Dillion Meriang won a silver medal in the Men’s Team competition at the 2010 Micronesian Games. 14 year old Roger Rao is from New Zealand and the 2010 New Zealand National Men’s Singles Champion. Japan’s Koki Niwa is the 2010 Youth Olympic Games Singles Champion and Mixed Doubles Champion, the 2010 Hungarian Open U21 Singles Champion and the 2010 World Junior Championships Doubles Champion. Choi Deok Hwa is the Korean Boy’s Junior National Champion and Ji Soo Ram is the Korean Girl’s Junior National Champion. Fijian Rob Dorovolomo won the 2010 Fiji Open for the Boy’s Singles (U15) and Boy’s Doubles (U21) and Christopher Guttersberger is the current number one Junior Boy in Fiji.
The events also coincide with the Governor of Guam, the Honorable Eddie Calvo proclaiming the month of April as “Table Tennis Month”.
ITTF Executive Director of Competition, Ms. Judit Farago, commented at the Global Junior Circuit meeting in Moscow, “It is great to see a new country (Guam) host a Global Junior Circuit Event in 2011. We are very pleased that Guam made the application to host the event and we look forward to a very successful competition hosted by Guam.”
The 2011 Guam Table Tennis Junior & Cadet Open will be the first time for a Micronesian Island to host a Oceania Cadet Challenge qualification competition; which will also be the only qualifying event to be held in the Oceania region this year.
OTTF Development Officer, Mr. Scott Houston says, “Since it is the first time an international event has come to Guam and also that Guam is the smallest country/territory in the history of the Global Junior Circuit to host an event we will be filming the entire event for a short documentary to be release on ITTF itTV and YouTube. The event will also be comprehensively covered on the ITTF website during the live event, and will be available after the event through the Global Junior Circuit link.”
Table Tennis is the third highest participation sport worldwide with 205 member associations. GTTF’s mission is to foster islandwide and international table tennis competitions. The sport on Guam has quickly expanded over the past two years and through the GTTF Family Community Youth Development Program, plans are underway to place a total 55 table tennis tables throughout the schools on Guam, benefiting over 7,000 students, encouraging exercise, fitness, self confidence, discipline and team work.
Information from a press release.
frankie@spbguam.com
