Australia tops Table Tennis Championships

Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Australia plays New Zealand in the Junior Girls Singles Finals, 'Atele Indoor Stadium. 10 August 2019.

By Eleanor Gee

Australia has come away with 13 of the 14 titles at the Oceania Junior Table Tennis Championships held in Tonga at ‘Atele Indoor Stadium on 7 – 10 August.

The green and gold team almost had a clean sweep of gold medals in each event except for the last match where New Zealand snatched the gold from Australia in a thrilling Junior Boys Singles Finals match 4-3.

The tournament is the first to be held in Tonga for the first time and was deemed successful, with the competition running smoothly for players and officials.

Assistant Referee, Neil Monfort, who has been involved with table tennis for 19 years, said Tonga did a great job with hosting the tournament.

“It has been a great four days. This tournament has a great feel to it, and for the players.”

“I only wish there were more people watching the final matches,” he said.

“During the week, we had the primary school kids here and they were allowed to be loud, so they had a great time.”

Before the tournament wrapped up, medals were presented to the top three winners of each event.

Netina Latu, CEO for Tonga Table Tennis Federation said she was pleased with how the event was organized and thanked her team, especially the volunteers, for their efforts in ensuring the smooth running of the championships.

Fifty players took part in the tournament, including Tonga (13), Australia (12), New Zealand (10), New Caledonia (3), Fiji (9), and Cook Island (3). Australia and New Zealand were the strongest teams in the tournament coming in first and second in almost every event.

Results [2]:

Saturday 10 Aug