Other Events | 13 Apr 2015
Australia scores clean sweep of titles at 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup
The first ever international table tennis event to integrate able-bodied and para table tennis, the K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup & Para Table Tennis Championships concluded on Sunday, 12 April 2015, with Australia stamping its authority to achieve a
The first ever international table tennis event to integrate able-bodied and para table tennis, the K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup & Para Table Tennis Championships concluded on Sunday, 12 April 2015, with Australia stamping its authority to achieve a clean sweep of titles on home soil.
The K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup is the continental qualifications for the prestigious 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups that will be held later this year, with the winners of the men’s & women’s singles title holder qualifying directly to the respective world cups.
Whereas the ITTF-Oceania Para Table Tennis Championships serves as the qualification event for the region to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, with the winners gaining direct entry to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Top seeds for the ITTF-Oceania Cup titles, William HENZELL (AUS) and LAY Jian Fang (AUS) were both able to retain their titles with an impressive 4-0 win over their opponents in the final hurdle to seal their victories.
HENZELL overcame compatriot David POWELL 11-5, 12-10, 11-7, 12-10 to score his 5th consecutive win at the ITTF-Oceania Cup, making him the sole men’s singles title holder ever since the event inaugurated in Adelaide in 2011.
After his historic victory, the 33-year old shared that “I’m proud to have earned the right to represent Oceania at the World Cup later this year, which will be a very important event in the lead up to qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics. I’ve been back in training for the past 3 months and I’m pleased about my form at the Oceania Cup.”
The three time Olympian added, “It was an important confidence boost for my aspirations to qualify for Rio. The Bendigo Table Tennis Association along with the ITTF did a fantastic job to run the most professional event we’ve seen in Australia since the 2000 Olympics.”
In the Women’s gold medal match, LAY repeated her success a year ago at the very same venue, to defeat New Zealand’s LI Chunli 11-5, 12-10, 11-6, 12-10 to defend her title and secure her second ITTF-Oceania Cup title.
Success in the ITTF-Oceania Cup, Australia also swept all 4 titles on offer at the ITTF-Oceania Para Table Tennis Championships: Women’s Singles Class 3-5, Women’s Singles Class 6-10, Men’s Singles Class 3-5, and Men’s Singles Class 6-10.
While in the case of Pacific Cup, New Caledonia’s Laurent SENS and Ornella BOUTEILLE are the newly crowned champions after defeating Vanuatu’s Yoshua SHING and Melveen RICHMOND in the Men’s & Women’s Single respectively.
Qualifications for the 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups:
NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER), Marcos FREITAS (POR), Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE), LIU Jia (AUT), Petrissa SOLJA (GER), Irene IVANCAN (GER)
GAC Group 2015 Asian Cup: XU Xin (CHN), FAN Zhendong (CHN), Jun MIZUTANI (JPN), FENG Tianwei (SIN), LIU Shiwen (CHN), ZHU Yuling (CHN)
K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup: William HENZELL (AUS), LAY Jian Fang (AUS)
