MARK SMYTHE NEWSLETTER Edition 14 – May & June 2012
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MARK SMYTHE NEWSLETTER Edition 14 – May & June 2012 David Powell Heming Hu Australian Singles Champion Australian Singles Champion 2006 (U16), 2009 (U18) & 2010 (U21) 2007 (U13&15), 2008 (U15), 2009 (U15) & 2010 (U18) Lily Phan Dominic Huang Australian Singles Champion Australian Singles Champion 2006 (U14), 2008 (U13&15) & 2009 (U15) 2011 (U13) COMING IN AUGUST MARK SMYTHE TABLE TENNIS WEBSITE LOTS OF FREE THINGS TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AND HELP IMPROVE YOUR GAME MANY COACHING SERVICES THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR STANDARD & ENJOYMENT OF THE SPORT NAME OF WEBSITE WILL BE MADE KNOWN WHEN IT GOES LIVE Page 1 of 13 HIGHLIGHTS OF PLAYERS I COACH David Powell wins Oceania Men’s Doubles title plus Men’s & U21 Team Event David and his partner for the tournament (Kane Townsend) won the Men’s Doubles at the bi-annual Oceania Championships (Fiji). David was originally partnered with Heming Hu but after Heming withdrew from the team, Kane replaced him and became David’s partner. They made the final as expected but then had an unexpected yet terrific win in the final against the no. 1 seeds, William Henzell & Robbie Frank, 12-10 in the deciding 5 th set. This is second Oceania doubles title together for David & Kane having won the U15 doubles in 2006. David was part of the Men’s and U21 Team and played both events where his team won Gold in both. David also made 2 other finals during the individual events. He was r-up in the U21 Singles to close friend Phillip Xiao (NZ) 3-0 and r-up in the U21 Men’s Doubles (with Kane) after a close but surprising lose to Phillip Xiao & Thom Nguyen (NZ) 11-9 in the deciding 5 th set. Daisy O’Bryan beats a German and Japanese player at World Veterans C’ships Playing in the Over 60 Women’s Singles, Daisy (a student of mine for over 4 years) had 2 great wins in group phase over a lady from Germany 3-2 and another from Japan 3-1. There were 4 players in each group (41 groups in total) and Daisy’s other match she lost 11-9 in the deciding 5 th set against a Japanese player. Daisy finished equal first (2 nd on count back) and progressed to the first round (round of 128) where she lost 3-0 to another Japanese player. Yang Shen and Atul Shrestha win singles titles at Ballarat Open Yang (no. 2 seed) won the U15 singles in a closely fought final against Atul winning 11-8 in the deciding 5 th set – Atul had a great win over the no. 1 seed, Dillon Chambers in the SF. Atul (no. 1 seed) won the U13 singles against Daniel Li in the final and confirmed his status as the no. 1 U13 player in the state. Yang Shen wins U18 & U15 Singles at Albury/Wodonga Open Yang continued his winning form during the last 2 months and won the U18 & U15 singles titles at Albury/Wodonga Open. He beat Dillon Chambers in both finals and secured his spot in the very strong U15 state team which will be favoured to win the National team event later this year. Mahi Joshi’s storms to U13 Singles title at Albury/Wodonga Open Mahi cleaned up the U13 singles event at Albury/Wodonga Open by beating National Squad member, Darcie Morton 3-0 in the final. This is a big step forward for Mahi as she searches for some bigger goals in future which are seemingly more realistic to achieve as each month passes. Page 2 of 13 GENERAL HIGHLIGHTS William Henzell and Li Chung Li (NZ) win Oceania Singles titles & the big bucks William and Li Chung Li were the Singles titles winners at the rich Oceania Cup/Championship collecting AUD$5,000 each. They have won numerous Oceania Singles titles over the years with William this time beating doubles team mate, Robbie Frank 4-1 in the final while Li beat Jian Fang Lay in a classic seven setter where the two old warriors of Oceania Table Tennis had chances to win. Australia win 3 Oceania Team titles As expected, on paper at least, Australia won the 3 Oceania Team titles it contested. They were the Men’s & Women’s Open plus the U21 Men’s. The Open events where fairly comfortable, especially as NZ did not field their strongest possible team in the Women. The U21 event was a tough battle against cross tasman rivals, NZ, with Kane Townsend proving the star for the Australian team winning both of his matches defeating Phillip Xiao 3-1 then showed his mental strength to clean up Kevin Wu 3-0 in the deciding last match when the team score was 2-2. William Henzell and Miao Miao win National Top 8 tournament William and Miao were the winners at the National Top 8 singles tournament. William defeated his doubles partner, Robbie Frank, in the final 4-1 while Miao defeated Vivian Tan 4-2 in their final. This is one of 4 tournaments of the year sanctioned by Table Tennis Australia in a hope to get the country’s best players to compete against each other more often. Kiet Tran and Sally Zhang win open singles titles at NSW Open Kiet and Sally won the Men’s and Women’s Singles titles at the NSW Open. Kiet, in his late 30’s, showed age is no barrier by defeating the no. 1 seed, Chris Yan 4-2 in the final in what would be considered a surprise result. Sally (no. 2 seed) confirmed her status as the no. 1 female in the state by defeated the no. 1 seed, H. Mai, 4-1 in the final. Four weeks earlier Sally won the NSW Closed singles title also defeating H. Mai 4-3 in the final. Bruno Levis and Claire Campbell-Innes win open singles titles at QLD Open As expected, Bruno won the Men’s Singles at the QLD Open showing his class by defeating Wade Townsend 4-0 in final – earlier Bruno defeating Wade’s younger brother, Kane, in SF. In the Women’s Singles, more siblings were part of the main action where Claire beat big sister Perri 4-2 in the final. Paul Pinkewich and Xuan Hang win open singles titles at ACT Open The evergreen Paul Pinkewich defeated Nana Boetang in the final of the Men’s Singles while Xuan Hang beat Victoria’s Belgin Bennett in the final of the Women’s Singles. Daniel Phan & Vy Bui win main singles event at South Australian Junior Open Daniel and Vy won the U18 Singles titles for their gender at the South Australian Open. Daniel defeated Sam Von Einem in a closely fought final 3-2 while Vy defeated J. Cabonce 3-0 in her final. These wins confirm Daniel’s and Vy’s standing as the state’s no. 1 junior. Other notable result was the visiting Victorian, Dillon Chambers, who won the U15 Singles title over the no. 1 local/state player, Mensur Cutahiji 3-1 in the final. Page 3 of 13 HANDY HINTS To reach higher levels in future, players should focus on improving their techniques for all skills/shots and routines that will help them achieve this. MARK SMYTHE ELITE TRAINING SQUAD 20 hours of quality training were held during the April school holiday period. All players who attended have been provided free clothing and off course free training. Another 12 hours will occur on July 11, 12 & 13. • High quality training that is free of charge! Who wouldn’t want to be part of this program? • If you are one of the best players in the State for your age group/category and wish to apply for a Butterfly sponsorship you can email Butterfly Australia (David or Brett) on [email protected] BITS AND PIECES Another staggering stat for Table Tennis on the world stage At the recent World Veterans Championships (June 25 – 30) held in Sweden, there were 3,316 participants covering 16 men’s events and 16 women’s events – 8 singles and 8 doubles events for each gender ranging from Over 40 up to Over 85. In the Over 40 Men’s Singles there were an incredible 148 groups with 4 players in each group. Its common knowledge the Olympic Games is the biggest sporting event in the world and when you consider 10,500 athletes competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (covering 2 weeks), it makes you realise how popular Table Tennis is in all age groups around the world – last edition I mentioned there were 120 countries which participated in the World Senior Championships earlier this year. Note: Australia (Melbourne) held the World Veteran Championships in 1994 where 46 tables were used spread all through the Melbourne Town Hall. Yang Shen training in China again Yang is currently in China for another stint of solid daily training. He’s there for 7 weeks (June 15 – August 5) this time, and will be playing 25-30 hours per week, something that is impossible for him to achieve in Melbourne or anywhere in Australia as there are no programs set up by myself, the State body or National body to allow this amount of regular weekly training to occur – this year he has been playing between 10-15 per week. Side note from Glenn Tepper’s article in last edition Glenn’s father, Merv, coached me in one match throughout my career. It was in the final of the U15 Boys Singles at the 1988 Australian Junior Championships in Perth against no.