CALENDAR: CLUB AND EVENT DATES UPDATED REGULARLY 
Deng Turns the Table at the Manitoba Open
Recently,
at the Manitoba Games in Thompson, Yunyang Deng lost two extremely
close five setters to Jeremy Tran; in the final of group play and then
again in the final. Well, what a surprise…they met again in the Youth
final of the Manitoba Open on Sunday March 17th. This time it was again
another five -setter but this time Yunyang turned the table and took
the match with scores of 7, 15, -9, -7, 9 for “advantage Deng”! In
other events, Terry Zhang continued his domination of Biruk Bekele by
easily winning the final in four straight at 9, 6, 9, 5. Biruk had
bested Thor Truelson from Minnesota in the semi’s whereas Terry
disposed of Jeremy in the other. After a one tournament absence, Michal
Rybak won the Active 4 Life/ >40 Years final. He defeated Thadeus
Jimenez in the final and reclaimed top spot in the >40 Circuit
standings from Richard Elendu who was absent. It was nice to have Thor
travel up to play in Manitoba again and also thanks to the Saskatchewan
Table Tennis Association for sending many strong junior and cadet aged
players…as well as wiley veteran Bob Lucky who always comes ready to
compete! This was the last event before the season finale “The
Tournament of Champions” on April 14th. Complete results can be found
at this link “Complete Manitoba Open Results” and to the right below.
Ron Edwards Reporting.
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Manitoba Games a Huge Hit!
The
Manitoba Winter Games Powered by Manitoba Hydro came to Thompson in
early March. Table tennis was held in Phase 2 from March 7th – 10th at
Ecole la Voie du Nord. Unlike the other sports contested, table tennis
didn’t have full teams representing all of the various sport regions.
Rather, the Manitoba Table Tennis Association invited our top junior
aged athletes to Thompson to compete in the event that was the first of
three to select Manitoba’s team for the 2019 Canada Winter Games. So,
as per 2014 in Morden, table tennis was a “demonstration sport” where
the top under 18 boys and girls showcased their talents…and wow, they
did not disappoint! First up was young Benji Dueck from Morden. Benji
was seeded 8th heading into the event; ie. he was the 8th and final boy
invited to compete and compete he did….with nerves of steel he ended up
finishing 4th in the round-robin and forth overall upsetting many of
the Winnipeg Squad players. MVP award to Benji I’d have to say! Then,
you had not one but two epic 5 set matches between the number one and
two seeds Jeremy Tran and Yunyang Deng. In group play Jeremy was up 2-0
in games before Yunyang squeaked out games 3 & 4 to force a 5th and
deciding game…12-10 Jeremy. Then, in the Gold Medal final, Yunyang had
him by the skinnies winning the first 2 games at 8 and 10. Visions of
sugar plumbs and fairies dancing in Yunyang’s head?…well, put the
dreams on hold…Jeremy comes back and wins three straight at 9,7 and 9.
Wow, what a final. In girls play things pretty much went as expected
with Carol-Jean Wong, a former Cdn. #2, coming out of “retirement” and
sweeping the field winning all of her matches 3-0. Anna Liu took second
spot and Nibusha Loganathan the bronze. Kudos to Diamond McKenzie and
Mason Campbell from Wabowden who were competing in their first Game’s
event. Although they failed to register any wins, they were each
competitive in all of their matches. With a couple of tables being
donated to Wabowden after their use for the Frontier High School Games
in April, the future looks bright for players from the area. Overall,
all athletes should be proud of their efforts at these games…competiton
yes, but friendships formed as well.
A
big shout out and thank you to Pat Kirby and his team from Sport
Manitoba as well as local Chair for Table Tennis Cristin Smook. Pat and
company delivered overall a top-notch product for the citizens of
Thompson and the rest of Manitoba to enjoy. Cristin, thanks for putting
up with me and my assistant-your father Ted- as we couldn’t have done
the table tennis without you; (inside joke-Cristin and Ted used to be
on Manitoba’s Provincial teams and so knew in advance both the
excitement and unknown feeling of dread of heading into a week-long
adventure with former Coach Ron)! Thanks also to Jason Su and Gregory
Chan who officiated a great event. Head Coach Arvin Tronco, Assistant
Coach Phuong Nguyen and managers Norman Tran and Qingqing Liu did a
great job with the kids. TRYOUT’S NUMBER 2 & 3 WILL BE HELD NEXT
FALL AS PART OF THE MANTOBA CLOSED AND RED RIVER OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS.
FINAL
STANDINGS BOYS: 1ST-Jeremy Tran/ 2nd -Yunyang Deng/ 3rd -Devin Chong/
4th -Benji Dueck (Morden)/ 5th -Kieran Buchberger/ 6th -Ben Vu/ 7th
-Jason Li/ 8th -Mason Campbell (Wabowden).
FINAL
STANDINGS GIRLS: 1ST -Carol-Jean Wong/ 2nd -Anna Liu/ 3rd -Nibusha
Loganathan/ 4th -Joyce Liu/ 5th -Diamond McKenzie (Wabowden).
Ron Edwards Reporting
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Frontier Table Tennis Titles Decided
Joseph H. Kerr
School in Snow Lake played host to the 44th Frontier Games. This year’s event attracted 386 athletes,
coaches and chaperones from 30 different schools. The table tennis event was contested by the
top 12 boys and 12 girls who qualified through their Regional playoffs; top 2
boys and top 2 girls from each of six regions. This represented athletes from
11 different schools from Norman, Eastman, Parkland and Westman Sport Regions.
Again, the level
of play was improved over the previous season with all of the best 3 out of 5
matches well contested. The only
negative was that the number of “legal” paddles used was at about an all time
low…many, many players with straight wood paddles or those with the top rubber
sheets peeled off. Results: Girl’s
Singles: Gold:
Maureen Thompson, Philomene Chartrand School, Camperville; Silver: Jane
Bird, Black River Anishinabe School, O’Hanley; Bronze:
Chantara Ettawakapow, Frontier Mosakahiken School, Moose Lake.
Boy’s
Singles: Gold:
Bradley Branth, Chan Kagha Otina Dakota Wayawa Tipi School, Birdtail; Silver: T.
J. Menard, Philomene Chartrand School, Camperville; Bronze: Jamie Anderson, Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre,
Norway House.
Thanks to former Provincial Team player Ted
Smook for helping run the event and for all of his expertise and patience for
playing countless points against countless challengers. Also thanks to Brian MacMillan and Heather
Lowe for having the M.T.T.A. up to help run this outstanding Manitoba sporting
event. Ron Edwards Reporting
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Manitoba Winter Games - Results
The details for the 2018 Mantioba Winter Games (schedule, results, volunteering opportunties) can be found here.
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Seniors Still Competing at Table Tennis
See CBC article about the 'little' sport doing big things at a Toronto retirement home - here.
Coaching Course - April 28, 2018
Arvin Tronco, MTTA Head Coach will host a one day work-shop for all
players, parents, teachers, parks & rec. workers who want to learn
how to teach beginners the sport of table tennis. Click here for more information and registration form.
Golden Boy Open - Tran Bounces Bekele!
The
Golden Boy Open was held this past February 10th at Daniel MacIntyre
Collegiate lower gymnasium. Players from Winnipeg, Interlake and
Central sport regions contested the medals. In the Pro-Open
Singles, 30 players competed. Matches from the group stage
through to the finals were hard fought. 2019 Canada Winter Games
hopeful Jeremy Tran had an up and down tournament. After easily
losing the Youth final to team-mate Yunyang Deng in straight sets (-5,
-6, -7) he played the match of his life to best 2016-2017 Circuit
Champion Biruk Bekele in the semi-finals in seven games. The
champ was knocked out and Jeremy advanced to face the always dangerous
Terry “Tian” Zhang in the final. No contest, an exhausted Jeremy
lost to Terry in 4 straight games. Newcomer Richard Elendu
continued to impress by making it three out of three for reaching the
finals in the Active 4 Life > 40 years event. This time
however, 2016 > 5o Years Canadian Champion Michal Rybak was absent
and Richard was up against Thadeus Jimemez. Thadeus prevailed in
a close four setter. The youngsters from Morden continue to
improve with Benji Dueck taking second in the Cadet A Division losing
to Jason Li and his teammate Joel Geake took bronze in the Cadet second
division. Top female players Phuong Nguyen lost her ¼ final match
in the Pro-Open and Anna Liu took 2nd spot in the Cadet B
Division. The next open tournament is the Manitoba Open on March
17th & 18th. Complete results and Circuit Standings are
located to the right.
Ron Edwards Reporting
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Manitoba Athletes Get Canada Cup Experience
This
past January 20-21 the MTTA sent our top 3 junior boys to participate
in the CANADA CUP held at the Fortious Sports and Health Centre in
Burnaby, British Columbia. It was a great experience for Jeremy
Tran, Yunyang Deng and Gordon Chow to play in such a competitive
tournament where they had a chance to measure their skills against
some of Canada’s best players.
Jeremy reached the round of 16
in the U-2150 rating event and the round of 32 in the MEN’S OPEN; 51
players entered this event. Yunyang and Gordon both advanced to
the round of 32 in the U-1750 rating event and were knocked out of
their groups in Men’s Singles play. Yunyang got an opportunity to
play against Canadian #14 Meng Gu from British Columbia and did a great
job of not giving up any easy points… he made some incredible shots
with his “cold blooded backhand drive” and had Meng shaking his head
wondering where these backhands were coming from. Gordon showed
his “never back down” mentality against some good players and never got
intimidated regardless of whom he was playing against. Jeremy
played at a high level losing his round of 32 Men’s match 13-11 in the
fifth game to a player from Alberta.
In general, it was a
perfect event to gain experience on how to play in a high-level
environment. It was also an eye opening for our junior boys to
motivate themselves to grind hard in practice because there are a lot
of good players they know about and maybe some others from other
provinces that they don’t; they must be prepared to play their
best against all-comers.
Coach Tronco Reporting
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US Open Table Tennis Championships
Greg Dzioba Umpiring on Court 1
With
over 130 tables in one venue, show courts, vendor displays, and more
than 850 athletes from over 25 countries - the US Open it is a sight to
behold! There are table tennis events for all athletes and all
levels - with rating events, age group events, team events, doubles,
singles and even `sandpaper` and `hard bat`events. This year the US Open was held in Las Vegas December 17-22 (a great time to escape Manitoba's winter!). MTTA
officials were at the US Open in full force. Like athletes,
International Umpires need to be at the top of their game, and
that experience comes from officiating at top level events.
Darek Mikita, Greg Dzioba, Royle Derbitsky, and Gregory Chan were in
Las Vegas to officiate and to be evaluated which is required to achieve
and maintain their Blue Badge and White Badge designations. With athletes from BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, Canada was well represented. Manitoba
athlete, Matthew Lehmann, focused on doubles at the US
Open. In Mens Doubles, teamed with Edison Huang (BC), the
MB/BC team reached the quarter finals. The MB/BC team was
up 2-0 against eventual finalists Kanak Jha and Bob Chen of the
US. The fourth game was a 15-13 loss, giving Jha and Chen a
run for their money, but Lehmann and Huang ended with a 4-2 loss. Huang/Lehmann vs Jha/Chen
In
mixed doubles, Lehmann was teamed with Andrea Pavlovic
(Croatia). Lehmann and Pavlovic had the unfortunate luck of
meeting eventual US Open mixed doubles champions Kohei Morimoto and
Yuki Shoji (Japan), losing 4-1 in the round of 32. [Of
note, Morimoto was a finalist in Men's Singles, and Shoji won Women's
Singles.]. Pavlovic/Lehmann vs Shoji/Morimoto
From
a spectator standpoint, the US Open is always a fun tournament with so
many interesting people, easy access from the hotels to the venue, and
a chance to watch high-level table tennis. Mark Lehmann reporting
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Terry's Revenge at the Manitoba Closed Table Tennis Championships
Sam Charach receiving award from Coach Tronco at the MB Closed
On
Saturday November 18th, young Terry Zhang was up 3-0 in the best of
seven final against wily veteran Biruk Bekele when somehow the
unthinkable happened and he dropped 4 straight games to lose in the
Pro-Open final 3-4…”really?...people were thinking…”Terry, up three
straight and he lost?” What was going on?
Well, on Saturday
December 16th, the Manitoba Closed Pro-Open final again featured Terry
against Biruk. In the semi’s, Terry made it past former #7 Woman’s
player in Canada Rongge Zhang with a convincing 4-1 win; however,
Rongge was far from top form…but that’s a story for another day. Biruk
meanwhile, dropped up-and-comer Jeremy Tran in 4 straight sets; young
Jeremy still doesn’t have the strength nor power nor guile to best the
big boys. On to the final…an exciting seven-setter 11-5, 4-11, 11-7,
11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-7. Well done Terry to outlast the always dangerous
Biruk who seems to be playing better and better…if only Coach Tronco
could get him into the gym more often so that when the Nationals rolls
around he could compete for the Canadian title?
In the Youth
final, Jeremy bested Phuong Nguyen in 4 sets after Phuong bested each
of Harkaran Singh-Sohal and Yunyang Deng in 5 sets in the quarters and
semi’s respectively.
The Active 4 Life final was a repeat of the
Red River final with Michal Rybak besting newcomer Richard Elendu in
straight sets. Richard promises to figure in the Pro-Open mix in the
future once he gets his physical conditioning in order.
Canada Winter Games female hopefull Anna Liu bested a fast improving Jason Li 3-0 to capture her first Cadet Singles crown.
Sweet
revenge and more dollars flowed into Terry’s pocket as he and Gordon
Chow bested Biruk and Michal Rybak in the open doubles final.
Complete results are attached below right.
Next
up for Manitoba is the US Open Championships where Matthew Lehmann is
competing for Manitoba and Canada and we have four International
Umpires there as well…Darek Mikita, Gregory Chan, Greg Dzioba and Royle
Derbitsky.
Cheers for the holiday season,
Ron Edwards Reporting
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King Bekele Starts Defence of His Crown
Biruk
Bekele was the Pro-Open Singles Circuit Champion for the 2016-2017
season. However, some argued that he was “King by Default” in that
“Crown Prince” Terry “Tian” Zhang only played in 3 out of 5 events last
year and he won all three finals over the King. Saturday, at the Red
River Open, hosted in the bowels of Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate, it
looked like the King was about to drop his crown. Having lost the first
three games in the best of seven by scores of -4,-7 and -5, King Bekele
somehow won the next four games in a row by scores or 10, 5, 10 and 8
leaving the large crowd of onlookers speechless. Terry was up 3-0, how
could he lose?...it is table tennis, things happen in the blink of an
eye! Well done to both players for an excellent match played. In the
Active 4 Life, >40 Years, Michal Rybak was in top form defeating
this time not Alex Mendoza (who had to work) but rather newcomer
Richard Elendu who made it to his first finals. Jeremy Tran defeated
Phuong Nguyen to capture the Youth <21 Years crown and Sparsh
Agrawal defeated Jeremy Huang to capture the Cadet title. Well done to
all players and I hope to see everyone out at the Manitoba Closed on
Saturday December 16th. Complete results can be found to the right.
Ron Edwards Reporting.
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Athletes Wanted
The Rady JCC is recruiting Jewish athletes to be a part of the Team Winnipeg delegation joining over
2,000 participants at the JCCA Maccabi Games August 5-10, 2018 in Orange County, CA.! More details can be found here.
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Continued Success in Europe
At
the Angby International Table Tennis tournament in Stockholm (November
3-5), Matthew Lehmann had the home court advantage with his Angby club
cheering him to victory in the Mens Category 1 Singles. In
other play, Matthew took the eventual winner of the U21 Men's singles
to the fifth game before bowing out in the second round of Men's U21.
Matthew
will continue to train in Sweden this month and compete in the
Stockholm Closed, as well as the ITTF Swedish Open, before returning to
Bulgaria for team match play.
Ron Edwards Reporting
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Congratuations Coach Tronco!
Cheers
in store for M.T.T.A. Head Coach Arvin Tronco and his wife Gerardine on
the birth of their baby daughter Marizza!
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2016-2017 Season Table Tennis Awards
&
Annual General Meeting
Our
Annual General Meeting was a big hit on Thursday, Oct. 5th. With such a
big turnout, it was to my surprise that everyone came on time, which
turned out to be an exciting and organized AGM. Ronnie Edwards, our
Executive Director, was a little upset that so many people came and ate
most of the food before he could get his hands on some himself.
Everyone knows how the AGM goes, we do the awards ceremony and then
discuss what’s in store for the up-coming season. There were a lot of
familiar faces we haven’t seen in a while, so it took some time for
everyone to get settled in and focused on the meeting.
Starting
with the awards presentations, can I just say what we were all
thinking? Wow did Biruk Bekele look handsome! He really rocked that
blue suit. Congrats on that bronze medal at Nationals Biruk! Biruk and
16 other athletes - 17 including the coach - received the Order of
Excellence award. A few people were unable to make it, but they still
deserved it nonetheless. Speaking of someone who was unable to make it,
Jeremy Tran had one of the biggest nights of his life! Winning not one,
not two, but five awards! That’s got to be some kind of record? One of
the first awards he won was first place in the League standings, with
Alex Mendoza, Czar Caguoia, Naomi Tran and myself behind him. Biruk,
showing off that flashy blue suit, came up to receive the Pro-Open
Circuit Singles Overall Champion award with Jeremy Tran taking in
second place. It’s great to see that the “Active 4 Life” (>40 Years)
athletes are still working hard and competing with the same amount, or
with maybe even more intensity, than us younger athletes and that Alex
Mendoza finally rose to the top and beat out Michal Rybak for the
overall Over 40 Category. Youth Singles Overall Champion was Jeremy
Tran and Yunyang Deng in second place…with Jeremy winning another
award, his sister Naomi was getting a little dizzy going back and forth
in his place. Congrats to Ben Vu for being the Cadet Singles Overall
Champion and Sparsh Agrawal for coming in for a close second.
Now, on to the bigger awards.
One
of our Filipino members shocked everyone and gained 694 points this
season winning the Most Improved Player award - congratulations to
Irwin Raymundo. Junior Male of the Year went to, you guessed it, Jeremy
Tran. Junior Female of the Year went to a small but energetic young
athlete who has always been dedicated to table tennis and was shocked
when she won the award, Ms. Anna Liu. Volunteer of the Year went to a
very deserving coach who helped Coach Arvin and I out a lot last
season, Mr. Meng Yu. For the Mike Partyka award, I’d like to give
thanks to the Executive and to everyone else for the endless support
and for honoring me with this award. The Liam Barclay Junior
Sportsmanship Award went to two individuals who were always in the gym
and who were eager to learn and play…these two athletes absolutely
deserved this award! Congrats to Kieran Buchberger and Nibusha
Loganathan. Another young athlete who loves the sport and was very
dedicated to the league was Hongjun Feng. Congrats for winning the
“Ironman” award for the most matches played in the District League last
season. Everyone should follow Hongjun’s example and come out to league
every Friday night! Last, but not least, Jeremy Tran winning the last
award there was to win…the “Player of the Year Award”. Jeremy may have
been a little distant from the gym at the start of the season but for
the second half of the season he was one of the most dedicated
athletes. It was a bummer you had to miss the AGM, but it was clear
that your hard work throughout the season paid off. Congrats again and
keep up the hard work!
Congratulations once again to all the
winners of last year’s season. You guys and gals should be proud of
your accomplishments. For the people who didn’t receive an award, this
should give you motivation to get in the gym more and work even harder
this upcoming season. Let’s all have a goal to become more present in
the gym and more focused when we’re at practice and to keep a
consistent level of intensity throughout the entire season.
The
last portion of the meeting was dedicated to the annual update of the
Executive and Committee teams. Somehow, my mom unintentionally got me
onto the Executive while knocking herself out. There were a couple
changes to the Executive members this year. Royle Derbitsky went from
Secretary to Secretary/Treasurer. Don Kokan went from being the Athlete
Representative to one of the Member’s at Large. While my mom wanted the
Athlete Representative position, I was nominated in her place because
only an athlete could have the position, sorry mom! The last change to
the Executive was adding a second Member at Large position that went to
long-time member Gregory Chan. Darek Mikita, Greg Dzioba and Osama Zaki
retained their senior positions. A complete listing can be found to the
top-right side of www.mtta.ca.
Overall, this was one of the more
successful AGMs we have had in a long time and it was a terrific way to
start off the 2017-2018 season. Hope to see everyone out at the gyms
and tournaments!
Phuong Nguyen Reporting
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"Lefty-Lehmann" Reaches Podium in Europe for 1st Time!
 
This
past October 14-15 weekend, Matthew Lehmann from Winnipeg competed in
the Albena Open on the shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. Matthew had
former M.T.T.A. Head Coach Milcho Uzunov in his corner as he reached
the semi-finals in the Men’s Open event against world ranked players
from Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Romania. Coach Uzunov said Matthew’s
attack was very effective as he won all three of his qualifying group
matches and then three more elimination-round matches until bowing out
in the semi’s. Matthew now returns to his Austrian training base, as he
prepares for matches with his Swedish club in Stockholm. However, he
will return to Bulgaria later in the fall to
compete with Milcho for the “Nedelino” Team in the Bulgarian Super
League. They will both be eagerly watched by former M.T.T.A. Head Coach
George Damianov. Both Milcho and George miss Canada and their former
players and pass on their regards to Terry, William, Freddy, Victor,
Carol-Jean, Victoria, Gordon, Euwe, Jacie, Naomi, Jeremy, Phuong, Tina,
Bryanna, Kaitlyn, Shaelynn…Milcho says they apologize to those they
missed as they had such a good time with the lot of you and he was
saddened that so many had quit our great sport.
Ron Edwards Reporting
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Table Tennis Season Start Up and Annual General Meeting
Hello
all Manitoba Table Tennis enthusiasts. Well, school is back in class so
that means that table tennis is not far behind! We are still awaiting
word from several school divisions on some facilities…but, in general,
the gyms, time-slots and programming will be about the same as last
year. I hope that most clubs will open the week of September 18th and
our first tournament is scheduled for November 18th.
There will
be some minor fee increases this year due to both some funding cuts
from the Provincial government to sport as well as some school
divisions increasing user fees. MORE INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED IN THE
COMING WEEKS AS PROGRAMMING FINALIZED.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5TH, 6
PM, SPORT FOR LIFE CENTRE, 145 PACIFIC AVENUE: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
AND AWARDS PRESENTATION FOR 2016-2017 SEASON…HOPE TO SEE YOU OUT!
Ron Edwards
Executive Director
----------------------------------------------- Reporters Wanted Contribute to the sport you love, write
an article and get it published right here!!!
We
would love to get stories and articles from the people that are
involved in the sport of Table Tennis. If you are a player,
coach, parent, umpire, referee, spectator, or involved in the sport in
any capacity, why not tell us your story, share your experiences,
provide some tips and knowledge. If you have something to
share,
we would love to hear from you. Submit your story, articles,
ideas to Ron Edwards.
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