Players from various clubs and schools came together under the England flag at the Zagreb Open – with great success.
A total of 41 players from the National Talent Academy at Ackworth School, Table Tennis England’s Talent Development Centres, Grantham College and clubs including Urban, Halton, Joola Plymouth and Kingfisher competed, helped by seven coaches.
And they brought back a stack of medals, including five golds, while Jamie Liu was named Best Boy Player of the tournament.
Liu’s accolade went alongside his double gold from the Mini Cadet Boys’ singles and team events.
He won the team gold alongside Louis Price and it was Price who faced him in the final of the singles, with Liu taking a 3-2 (5-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 12-10) victory.
Both boys won 3-2 in their semi-finals, with Price overcoming Fusion player Aadil Anand 9-11, 14-12, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, leaving Anand with a bronze.
The other double gold medallist for England was Matt Leete, who won the team title with Shayan Siraj and added the singles event, in which he beat Mislav Martinek 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7) in the final.
The fifth gold medal of the haul was won by Ethan Walsh and Amirul Hussain in the Cadet Boys’ Team event.
There was also a clutch of silver and bronze medals for the English contingent, with two silvers for Mollie Patterson. In the singles, she was beaten by Hana Arapovic of Croatia 3-2 (7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 10-12, 11-4). Arapovic was named Best Girl Player of the tournament.
And in the team event, Patterson joined with Jasmin Wong to win silver, with Darcie Proud and Gemma Kerr picking up bronze in the same event.
Walsh picked up his second medal in the Cadet Boys’ Singles, being beaten by Matija Novel in the final. Novel had earlier knocked out Reece Chamdal in the semi-finals, meaning Chamdal won a bronze.
Ruby Chan put up a fight in the final of the Mini Cadet Girls’ Singles, but had to settle for silver as she was beaten 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 11-5) by Malamaten Mitriou.
The other silver medal was for Denise Payet, alongside Marta Vukelic in the Junior Girls’ Team event.
Also competing were:
Mini Cadet Boys: Felix Thomis, Jake Grayson, Oliver Cornish, Marco Plate, Thomas Palmer
Cadet Boys: Harry Watson, Joe Newman, Louis Rogove, Edan Regan, Joe Cope, Sam Chesterman, Maxim Stevens, Sacha Chowdhury
Junior Boys: Dan Kerr, Uther Kingdom, Josh Millman, Ed Haskell, Carl Baldry
Mini Cadet Girls: Erin Richards, Jasmine Williams, Sophie Chiang, Millie Rogove, Anaya Patel, Angharad Beman
Cadet Girls: Emily Haskell, Anais O’Connor
Junior Girls: Robyn Cosgrove