by Ian Marshall, Editor

Malaysia’s Cyril Sen and Hong Kong’s Chan Cheong-Ki, always known as C.K. Chan, were the experts on duty.

A total of 13 students attended, nine men and four women; in addition to Myanmar, the national associations of China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea Republic and Singapore were represented.

“For some of the participants, it was their first exposure to the requirements to be a high level umpire; whilst for some others, it was an enabler to understand the finer points of umpiring. One of the participants, who said he thought he had a good understanding of the rules, expressed his surprise to know that it was important to understand the specific meanings of many of the words used in the Rules of Table Tennis.” Cyril Sen

A major aim of the initiative was to increase the number of Blue Badge Umpires in Asia as well as facilitating quality umpires to officiate at the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships.

“The Myanmar Table Tennis Federation is to be congratulated for having supported this initiative and for providing the participants with good facilities and hospitality. On behalf of the ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee, the trainers would like to express their appreciation and thanks to the Asian Table Tennis Union and the Myanmar Table Tennis Federation for this initiative, where an Advanced Umpires Training Seminar together with an Advanced Rules Examination and Evaluations were conducted at an Asian Junior competition. I hope that this would become the norm and not the exception.” Cyril Sen

Notably the city, the capital of Myanmar is very much a focal point in the region; it hosted the 24th and 25th ASEAN Summit (Association of South East Asian Nations), the ninth East Asia Summit and the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.