As a result of the collaboration between the University of Nottingham and the Chinese Table Tennis College in Shanghai, the university table tennis team are spending 10 days in China for their pre-season training.

The players attending are Liam Mctiernan, Yolanda King, Adam Harrison, Emma Ludlow, Gabriel Achampong and Paul McCreery.

Joining the players is Table Tennis England Performance Coach Alan Cooke, who will be helping with the training and making sure the players take advantage of this fantastic opportunity.

Cooke said: “This is an amazing opportunity for our players to experience at first-hand how the world’s best table tennis players train on a daily basis in top-quality conditions and against top-quality opponents.

“This is a word-class facility where national teams from all around the world are wanting to bring their best players to experience this level of training. This can be a life-changing experience for many young up-and-coming athletes.”

This is just one of the many opportunities the university table tennis programme offers, along with up to 15 hours a week of extensive training and high-quality play. There is the provision of first-class sparring and coaching, excellent strength and conditioning opportunity and extensive scholarships on offer.

Additionally, the university is in the process of building the £40 million David Ross Sports Village which will also serve to attract world-class table tennis players.

Director of the programme, Nicola Deaton-Perry, said: “I am very pleased with how the programme is progressing. We have a strong team in place and the links with both China and Table Tennis England will ensure the programme goes from strength to strength.

“Our vision is to deliver Europe’s leading university table tennis programme with a global reputation for excellence.”

Previous alumni of the university include former world and Olympic champion Deng Yaping who has her own scholarship programme within the university to fund top Asian table tennis athletes to this prestigious Russell Group university.

Anyone interested in the programme or scholarship, please contact Alex Perry on [email protected] or 07813 876704.