The World Hopes Week has concluded with a thrilling Challenge tournament in Asuncion, Paraguay. After a week of hard training and fantastic cooperation between the coaches, the Challenge tournament offered an exciting finale to the ITTF’s talent identification activity.
The World Hopes Week assembled the world’s best talents for a week of training and competition under the guidance of Head Coaches Eva Jeler and Martin Ostermann. Representatives from all continents went through a continental qualification or were selected through wild cards to participate in this prestigious activity.
“The training was very good. We coaches enjoyed it a lot, and the kids did as well. It was very well organized by the Paraguayan federation, everything was perfect. The coaches learned a lot, so thank you Eva, thank you Martin, and thank you ITTF.” – Raymond Zhaowei Zhang, Canadian coach
Training sessions in the hall were complemented by educational sessions, run by the Head Coaches and IITF Head of Sustainability Karine Teow, who offered coaches an introduction into sustainability approaches to take when working with young, high level athletes. On the free afternoon, the Paraguayan Table Tennis Federation arranged a visit to the CONMEBOL football museum, showcasing the history and strength of South American football, which was greatly enjoyed by the players.
The last training day was used for preparation for the final tournament, the Hopes Challenge, which commenced on Wednesday afternoon with the boys’ and girls’ group round. The format of the Challenge was revised. to keep the excitement going throughout the group matches. All matches were played to 4 games, with a golden point deciding the match point at 10-10. Every game counted for one point, and the final tally of points after the group stages determined progression to the quarter finals. In the event of a tie, the head to head standing would decide. Excitement rose high when Cindy Zhu from Canada and Patience Anyango from Uganda, who had drawn their head to head match, ended up with the same amount of points after the group stages. A deciding set was played, tightly contested and eventually won 11:8 by Cindy, securing her spot in the quarter finals.
In the boys’ groups, no deciding set was necessary to secure progression to the quarter finals. Eli Ho, New Zealand, faced first Stefan Bonchev of Bulgaria in the quarters, then Pietro Campagna of Italy in the semis to reach the finals. His opponent Alexander Malov from Spain beat Chirag Pradhan of the USA to reach the semis, and then won against Faiz Hizir of Malaysia. The final was an exciting match, won by Eli Ho after three thrilling sets.
In the girls’ draw, Dania Hafis of Malaysia beat Cindy Zhu and Lisa Zhao of France on her way to the final, while Abigail Yu of the USA won against Dania’s compatriot Choo Ke Ying and Albane Rochut of France to reach the final. Eventually, Dania emerged victorious, with her fighting spirit carrying through from training to competition.
“The Hopes Program is really good, and the US team here was strong, with one of our girls, Abigail Yu, competing in the final right here in Paraguay” – Qi Wei, USA coach
“The Malaysian players performed well, and they also had the opportunity to meet a lot of different players with different styles, which is a really good experience for them, to get exposed to this. So we hope that ITTF will continue to offer these kinds of opportunities”. Leong Chee Feng, Malaysian coach
Our thanks goes to FPTM for organizing an outstanding World Hopes Week & Challenge, and to all participants for creating an engaging and inspiring environment.
All information about the World Hopes Challenge results can be found on the Hopes program page: https://www.ittf.com/hpd/programmes/athletes/hopes-program-2/
