Chinese Taipei emerge champions

MUSCAT, Oct 29 - Chinese Taipei paddlers dominated the singles titles in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Premium Oman Cadet and Junior Open which concluded in Muscat late on Monday at the main indoor hall of the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. After claiming most of the team titles on Friday, Chinese Taipei paddlers returned home with six trophies of the singles competitions including the junior singles (boys and girls), cadet singles (boys and girls) and hopes singles (boys and girls) competitions. Tai Ming-Wei from Chinese Taipei won the boys junior singles title as he beat Huang Yu-Jen 4-0 in the final. Cai Fong-En edged her teammate Hsu Yi-Chen 4-0 in the girls junior singles final.

Chen Yen-Ting won the gold medal in the boys cadet singles after outplaying Russia’s Sergey Ryzhov 3-0, while Chen Yen-Ting lifted the girls title after beating Russia’s Sofia Kniazeva 3-0.

In the boys hopes singles final, Rawad al Nasser from Qatar missed the chance to enter the history as he suffered a 3-0 loss against Hsu Hsien-Chia. Yeh Yi-Tian edged her teammate Liu Zi-Fei 3-0 in the girls final.

Beside the hosts Oman, teams from Britain, Greece, France, India, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sweden and the UAE took part at the event in Muscat.

The Sultanate’s young star of hopes team, Ahmed al Riyami, was very close to advance into the semifinal round of boys hopes singles. Al Riyami suffered a 3-0 loss against Qatar’s Nasser al Rawad.

Oman’s head coach of table tennis, Mohammed Atoum affirmed that the national team players developed a lot and they were very near to register victory in many matches at different categories.

“Lack of focus and less experience at international matches level were main reasons for the Sultanate’s players at this international event. We have future plans for our players to make them capable of reaching their targets. Our target now is to see some local players on good positions at the regional and international level,” the Jordanian coach said.

HH Sayyid Malik bin Shihab bin Tariq al Said, was the chief guest for the final ceremony of the ITTF World Junior Circuit Premium Oman Cadet and Junior Open in presence of Abdullah BaMukhalef, Chairman of OTTC and other top officials.

The chief guest distributed the medals, trophies and awards to the top winners of all the categories. The organising committee presented two awards to the youngest participants in the tournament including the Sultanate hopes team player Turki Fahad al Abri and Lebanon’s Ibisian.

Abdullah BaMukhalef, Chairman of OTTC, stated that hosting of the ITTF World Junior Circuit Premium event in Muscat for the second consecutive year is part of OTTC plans to popularise the sport in the Sultanate.

“The TTX function which was as apart of the main tournament registered a great success as big crowd attended the event at Muttrah Souq on Saturday. Table tennis sport in the Sultanate is moving on the right track and we hope to spread the game to all the wilayats.

Oman’s players delivered solid performance during the tournament and we are looking forward to see better in the coming future. We hope our players gained the required experience,” the OTTC chief concluded.