The Eastland 2022 ITTF-Oceania Senior & Youth Championships hit Melbourne in September

The Eastland 2022 ITTF-Oceania Senior and Youth Championships are set to create an exciting buzz and shine a light on the region’s best table tennis players at Eastland Shopping Centre in Ringwood, Melbourne from 5 to 10 September, 2022.

The ITTF-Oceania Table Tennis Championships is an annual event organised by the International Table Tennis Federation-Oceania (ITTF-Oceania) that has been running since 1978. The event has been bringing together some of the best table tennis players from around the Pacific for over four decades. Australia has played host to the event since 2014 with Fiji, New Zealand and French Polynesia sharing the honours across the three tournaments prior.

ITTF-Oceania Chief Executive Officer, Barry Griffiths, is beyond excited to have the tournament back for the first time since the Junior Championships that were played in Tonga in 2019, with cancellations that interrupted sport across the globe during the height of the pandemic taking their toll.

“We are immensely excited to once again be holding the Oceania Championships and to be back on Australian shores bringing some fantastic table tennis competition to the people of Melbourne and to anyone around the world though our live stream with Cluch TV,” said Griffiths.

“The Eastland 2022 ITTF-Oceania Senior and Youth Championships is something we have been looking forward to for a while. Players from a number of countries including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, French Polynesia, Tonga, Marshall Islands and more will hopefully be battling out, with plenty of players fresh off their 2022 Commonwealth Games campaigns.”

The tournament is a qualifier for the ITTF Youth World Championships in Tunisia in December 2022 and the ITTF World Championship Finals in South Africa in 2023.

This year the tournament will have a slightly different feel, with Eastland Shopping Centre shouldering the hosting duties as well as becoming the event’s naming partner.

In a fresh and exciting move to attract more foot traffic and engage the general public, the event will be held inside the Eastland Shopping Centre,  which will be decked out to suit an international-level event, as opposed to the usual Table Tennis Stadium.

Hopefully through activations with ITTF sponsors and the venue, the people of Melbourne will be as excited as we are to watch these athletes in action and experience a great event, especially following the last couple of weeks where everyone has been able to witness the talent of the medal winning Oceania players in Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games.

In the lead up to the event the 2022 ITTF-Oceania Continental Youth Training Camp will hit the tables. A three-day training camp will be run by ITTF Expert Coach, Patrick Wuertz, who sees it as a great stepping-stone for players to prepare in the best possible way for The Eastland 2022 ITTF-Oceania Senior and Youth Championships.

“We look forward to welcoming the players and coaches to the preparation camp ahead of the 2022 Oceania Youth and Senior Championships. For some of the players, it will be the first international camp and competition after a long break, and it will be interesting to see how the players used this break to work on their table tennis performance,” said Wuertz.

“Generally, we’ll be focusing on the small things during the camp, in particular the quality of serve/return, and the first few shots of the rally. It’s all geared towards players feeling comfortable and confident at the end of the camp to perform at their best during the Championships.”

Tournament dates and times:
● The Championships will take place from Monday 5 to Saturday 10 September.
● Time: 9am to 9pm, daily

Schedule:
● Thursday 1 September & Friday 2 September: 11am until 2pm & 6pm until 9pm
● Saturday 3 September until Wednesday 7 September: 11am until 2pm
● Thursday 8 September & Friday 9 September: 11am until 2pm & 6pm until 9pm
● Saturday 10 September: 11am until 2pm

Event contact: Ryan Wiegand – rwiegand@ittfoceania.com