PRESS RELEASE
Butterfly Schools’ Individual Championships – April 2009
Over 260 players from 50 counties met at the Doncaster Dome to take part in the Butterfly Schools’ Individual Championships on 25th April 2009. These are the 36th National Individual Championships organised in eight age groups by the English Schools’ Table Tennis Association and the largest one day event in the table tennis calendar with over 12 hours of continuous play on 20 tables.
Three retain their crowns
Emma Vickers (Nottinghamshire) took her fourth ESTTA title winning the Under 19 Girls’ event for the second time having previously won at Under 11 (2002) and Under 13 (2004).
Natalie Slater (Staffordshire) retained her Under 16 title playing well throughout the group and knockout sections of the competition.
Tin Tin Ho (Middlesex) kept a tight grip on her title in the Under 11 section. This win recorded her second school championship victory during April, having already won the British Primary Schools’ International Individual event at Blackburn where she also led the ESTTA Girls’ Team to victory.
Five new champions
All other events saw new champions, many who had fought over the years for a place in the medals.
Chris Doran (Northamptonshire) became Under 19 Boys’ Champion, Igor Morais (Middlesex) the Under 13 Boys’ Champion and Jessica Dawson (Cleveland) the Under 13 Girls’ Champion.
The Under 16 Boys’ final followed closely contested semi-finals for both Zak Zelisnick (Middlesex) and Lewis Gray (Kent) winning in five games and four games respectively. The final was no different with Lewis turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 victory winning 10-12, 11-3, 5-11, 11-6, 11-6.
The Under 11 Boys’ event also saw tight matches, many going to the wire, with both finalists beating top seeds to reach that level of the competition. Hugo Pang (Dorset) was the winner over Matthew Leete (Lincolnshire) 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-13, 11-9.
“No whiff-whaff, no ping-pong – just quality table tennis from skillful young players which augurs well for the future of the sport!”
Results can be found on www.estta.org.uk
