London Academy and Grantham College will represent the English Schools’ Table Tennis Association (ESTTA) at the International School Sport Federation (ISF) World Schools’ Table Tennis Championships in Eilat, Israel, in April.
The Academy will be represented by Theodore Achampong, Ryan Barnett, Eren Gozcu and Omar Khassal in the Boys’ School Team Championships, which has attracted an entry from 18 countries.
Grantham players Emily Bolton, Beth Cook and Grace Potter will compete in the Girls’ School Team competition against teams from 15 countries.
They will be joined in the squad by Kate Cheer (Ifield Community College), Tin-Tin Ho (City of London School for Girls), Letitia McMullan (Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh) and Denise Payet (Enfield County School), who comprise the Girls’ Nationally Selected Team.
Billy Forster (Egglescliffe Sixth Form College, Stockton), Tom Jarvis (Skegness Grammar School), Alex Ramsden (Northampton School for Boys) and Alec Ward (Middlesbrough College) will compete in the Boys’ Nationally Selected Team events.
Provisional entries suggest teams from Armenia, Belgium French Community, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China PR, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic and Turkey will take part in the event from April 2-8, 2016.
The draw will take place at the ISF Headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium in January 2016.
This ISF six-day team and individual event, including opening and closing ceremonies together with a cultural visit and activities, complements the ESTTA programme of team, individual and Home Country International championships.
ESTTA has sent teams to every ISF Table Tennis Championships. Gail Johns, Head of Delegation, has been an ever present member of the ESTTA Delegations as a Non Playing Captain. She looks forward to her new role and at the prospect of working with this squad and feels there is enough talent to repeat or even improve upon bronze medals achieved in the last two events staged in Sardinia and France.
She also acknowledged that participation by ESTTA in this World Schools’ Table Tennis Championships is only made possible through support from Butterfly, Heritage Oil Ltd. and Table Tennis England.
Also attending will be umpires Nico Caltabiano and Alex mercer, plus Non Playing Captains Stephan Hastings, Matjaz Sercer, Sam Perry and Kate Hughes.