The 2007 GCTTA Junior Open Delivers Fireworks

By Filipe and Vivian

On the day, 86 eager juniors, from as far away as Lydenburg and Durban, turned up to deliver some amazing display of athleticism. It must also be said that 3 schools, due to strike actions and HPC training, did not make it to the tournament; A great pity for the disabled players from Filidelfia School were sorely missed.

The other notable point was the participation by kids that have never played in a structured Open Tournament before. A testament to the behind-the-scenes work being undertaken by the many longsuffering volunteers dotted all over Gauteng.

The finals of the boys U/20 saw two well tuned athletes fighting it out to the wire. In the end, Lloyd Reddy won the final 4-1 against a never-say-die Chetan Nathoo from Lenasia TTA. The final score is not a good indicator of what went on in the Match, like for example the 4th set ending on 16-14 and Chetan being 4-9 down in the 5th and clawing his way back to 10-9 but Lloyd held his nerve to close the set at 12-10. Talk about nail-biting stuff

In the Boys U/20 Doubles event, Lloyd paired with Paul Wernich to demolish all opposition.

The Girls U/20 final saw an evenly matched affair with Gila Barit playing Danisha Patel. The same 2 players contested the U/17 final, with Gila coming out the winner in that match. In the U/20 final, Gila held the slight psychological advantage which led to a titanic struggle. Danisha won the first closely fought first set 11-9. Then Gila turned on the heat and won 3 sets in a row. It looked liked a one way street, but Danisha dug deep and won the next 2 sets and tied the score at 3 games all. The tense final set saw Gila win 11-7, and the match by 4 games to 3. These two will definitely deliver a few more epic battles in the years to come.

In the Girls U/20 Doubles event, Gila teamed up with Danisha to show the rest of the field how Table Tennis is played

The other impressive battles were between the two Mathole brothers from GNTTA; Samuel and Terence. These two 11 years olds met in both U/12 and U/14 boys finals, with Samuel coming out on top in both.

The Mathole brothers also combined to win the U/14 co-ed doubles, delivering some blistering pace, tight service-actions and spirited play. Watch out for these two!

Two players to watch out for are Chava Barit and Kajol Itchu. They contested the U/12 girls final, with Chava coming out on top in a technical demonstration of placement play. Chava also went on to win a thrilling 5 setter against Brigitte Maake in the U/14 girls singles.

Chava and Kajol paired up for the U/14 co-ed doubles event where they took out a few of the opposing all-boy teams.

To the list, 4 players stand out: Chava Barit (2 Gold, 1 Bronze), Samuel Mathole (3 Gold ), Gila Barit (3 Gold), and Lloyd Reddy (3 Gold) followed closely by Terence Mathole (1 Gold, 2 Silver), and Danisha Patel (1 Gold, 2 Silver).

‘Exciting is as Exciting does’ led the President of SATTB to utter the following words; “You must consider hosting another junior tournament later the year!” A piece of encouragement that will be seriously considered by the GCTTA Executive.

Thank you:

To GPSAC, GTTB, City of JHB, Blue Fountains TTC, Lotto and SACSSA for making the whole event exciting and possible.

To all participants, parents, teachers and supporters who strutted their stuff in the spirit of sportsmanship.

To the Tournament Referees, Jose and Filipe, for keeping all proceedings aboveboard and clean.

To the Tournament Director and his band of Administrators – Vivian, Margie, Philip and Laurie Putter from SACSSA – for ensuring that matches and queries were dealt with expeditiously.

To the Umpires – Claudine, Jeanine, Sally, Angie, Dawie, Hadley, Earl and Umair - for keeping their cool at all times. A special mention must be made of Haroen Khan and Arnold Louw who used their expertise to keep the less experienced Umpires on track.

To the media officials, Sarel and Kosta, for taking time-off their busy schedules to photograph and film the proceedings.

To the Caterers, Jenny and Loshini, for feeding all the hungry mouths that presented themselves at the serving counter through out the day.

To the setting-up crew – Kosta, Rolf, Gavin, Neil, Vivian and Filipe – for embracing the cold on Friday night.

And finally but not least, to all the various visitors who popped in throughout the day uttering praises and encouragements all round: Mr. Veli Mnyandu – GPSAC, Ms. Sandra Jooste – City of JHB, Johan du Plessis – SACSSA, Mr. Ganief Fataar – SATTB and Mr. Moegamad Isaacs – GCTTA Technical Manager.

Medal Winners:

Singles

	U12 Girls	U12 Boys	U14 Girls	U14 Boys	U17 Girls	U17 Boys	U20 Girls	U20 Boys
Bronze	Joanne Muller	Malvin Mahloare	Victoria Molefe	Riyaad Essof	Demi Leigh Ivan	Siddiq Sataar	Marina Liebenburg	Paul Wernich
Bronze	Rozelia v Zyl	Irfaan Essof	Vanessa Mnguni	Aasif Sataar	Nabeelah Essof	Shivesh Dindayal	Leandra Raats	Emile Mauvis
Silver	Kajal Itchu	Terence Mathole	Bridgette Maake	Terence Mathole	Danisha Patel	Kalpesh Itchu	Danisha Patel	Chetan Nathoo
Gold	Chava Barit	Samuel Mathole	Chava Barit	Samuel Mathole	Gila Barit	Lloyd Reddy	Gila Barit	Lloyd Reddy

Doubles

	U14 Open		U20 Girls		U20 Boys
Bronze	Chava Barit	Kajol Itchu	Danielle de Bruyn	Leandra Raats	Nirmal Fakir	Shahil Mawjee
Bronze	Bilaal Patel	Riyaad Essof	Bonolo Mohlasi	Laycken Goosen	Kalpesh Itchu	Shivesh Dindayal
Silver	Mathews Mohloae	Isaacs Baloyi	Marina Liebenburg	Carrolien de Waal	Chetan Nathoo	Emile Mauvis
Gold	Terence Mathole	Samule Mathole	Gila Barit	Danisha Patel	Paul Wernich	Lloyd Reddy