New Zealand Secondary School Champs
The 2016 Schools Table Tennis Champs are being held at Arena Manawatu in Palmerston North. Results and reports will be posted on this webpage.
Day 3 Individuals Report
Individuals Results List
There were a few upset results in pool play, with some foreign exchange students without a local tournament pedigree proving strong competitors.
The tail end of the under 19 boys ran as expected, with Victor Ma defeating Kevin Lin in the semi-finals and Dean Shu accounting for Ricky Yeung from St Peters Cambridge. Earlier Ricky had defeated Roger Wang in a quality quarter-final. The crowd got the final they were expecting, and it did not disappoint, going to 5 sets. Perhaps it was motivation from the disappointment the previous day, but Victor Ma pulled out the big shots to triumph over Dean in the fifth set.
Edward Qiu won the plate final, playing a much improved Dan Heaphy.
In Under 19 girls there was a 5 player round-robin with Epsom Girls' Ruofei Rao triumphing over team-mate Christina Zhou, and Zhiying Cheng finishing third.The Under 15 girls was won by Sophie Low, with Rachel Li runner-up.
The Under 15 boys final was won by Westlake newcomer Eric Yin, who surprisingly defeated Jim Sha by straight sets in the final. Earlier Eric had a big battle in his semi-final with Matthew So from St Peters, Cambridge, while Jim defeated Thomas Sun, who upset Judd Zahn in the quarters. So had beaten Jonathan Li in the quarters, and Yin defeated Liam Buckrell in pool play. Xavier Lea won the plate.
Day Two Report
Full Teams Results File
Teams Semis and FinalsIn Boys A grade semis Westlake defeated MacLeans 4-1, with Kerry Huang-Chen registering the sole win for MacLeans, and Roger Wang winning two singles for Westlake. Auckland Grammar defeated Palmerston North Boys High in the other semi-final 4-0, with Kevin Lin defeating Jae Lee in 4 sets.
In A grade 5-8 play-offs Ruofei Rao and Christina Zhou each won 2 singles in a 5-2 win for Epsom girls over MacLeans 2. MacLeans Girls beat Freyberg 5-1 in their play-off, with Zhiying Cheng winning 3 matches.
In the first completed final, Epsom Girls romped to a 4-1 win over MacLeans. Sophie Low won for the losers, with Christina Zhou and Ruofei Rao again unbeaten for the winners, and playing strongly throughout the tournament.
In the Boys final Auckland Grammar was victorious by 4-3 over Westlake Boys, in a reversal of last year’s result. The key matches were Dean Shu’s four set defeat of Victor Ma in the second match, and Dean and Kevin Lin’s doubles victory over Victor and Roger Wang. Victor defeated Tiger Shi to boost Westlake’s chances. Roger had earlier defeated Tiger , and later beat Kevin in 4 to take the match to 3-3. Kevin had beaten Logan Xu in the third match, and Logan was left with the unenviable task of playing Dean Shu in the deciding seventh match. Dean completed the victory in straight sets.
In the third place playoff MacLeans College defeated Palmerston North Boys High 4-2, with Jim Sha, Lawrence Shum and Kerry Huang-Chen all winning a singles. Jae Lee defeated Terry for the losers.
In the 5-6 play-off MacLeans 2 defeated Freyberg 1 4-1 with Scott Lochhead recording a win over Judd Zahn for the losers. Judd, Jonathan Li and Jason Chak all had singles wins for MacLeans.
In the B Grade final, Auckland Grammar 2, lead by Jason Wu, and supported by Kadin Su and Matthew Wu defeated Westlake 2 by 4-2. The decisive point was an injury to Nicholas Lin that allowed Matthew Wu to recover from 0-2 to win 3-2.
Tauranga Boys College defeated Palmerston North Boys High 4-3 to take third place in their first year in the event. Caelyn Potts turned the tide with a come from behind victory over Aaron Su in 5 sets, while Max Henderson continued his strong singles form.
Papamoa defeated PNBHS 3 5-2 for fifth place, having beaten Freyberg 2 previously.
Day One Report
It isn't often that our leading girls get to play the boys in competition, so all eyes were on the performances of Epsom Girls and McLeans College Girls in the A grade, along with Faith Molina playing for Freyburg.
Several of the best contests of the day came from mixed gender matches. Kerry Huang-Chen had an upset 4 set win over Ruofei Rao to take McLeans to a nail-biting 4-3 win over Epsom Girls in a match where foreign exchange student Christina Zhou beat both Lawrence Shum and Jim Sha, and Ruofei also beat Lawrence.
The final match of the day proved a great contest, with Kevin Lin from Auckland Grammar defeating Christina Zhou in 5 sets in front of a crowd of worried Grammar supporters.
A minor upset was provided by Jonathan Li of MacLeans 2 beating Logan Xu from Westlake Boys in 5.
Zhiying Cheng did the damage for MacLeans Girls in their 2-5 loss to MacLeans Boys, winning both her singles.
Palmerston North Boys High did it the hard way, defeating both MacLeans girls and boys 2 by 4-3. They play Grammar in the semis on day 2, with Westlake playing MacLeans 1.
The B Grade had a few lop-sided results in the A section, with Grammar 2 dominating and Tauranga a clear second. There was a tight battle in the B section, with PNBH2 joining Westlake 2 after both had edged Papamoa 4-3.
Preview
We are pleased to have players coming from Auckland, North Shore, Waikato, Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Manawatu Associations, with Tauranga Boys College and St Peters College, Cambridge amongst new entries this year.
Seedings for the Individual Events are as follows:
Under 19 Boys
- Victor Ma (Westlake Boys)
- Dean Shu (Auckland Grammar)
- Ricky Yeung (St Peters College)
- Kevin Lin (Auckland Grammar)
- Roger Wang (Westlake Boys)
- Jae Lee (PN Boys High)
- Lawrence Shum (Macleans College)
- Logan Xu (Westlake Boys)
Under 19 Girls
- Ruofei Rao (Epsom Girls)
- Zhi Ying Cheng (Macleans College)
Under 15 Boys
- Jim Sha (Macleans College)
- Liam Buckrell (Wellington College)
- Xavier Lea (Papamoa College)
- Jonathan Li (Macleans College)
- Thomas Sun (PN Boys High)
- Jason Chak (Macleans College)
Under 15 Girls
- Rachel Li (Macleans College)
- Sophie Low (Macleans College)
- John Lea: TTNZ Liaison Officer