Located in Ringwood, a Melbourne suburb, in excess of 362 outlets that include stores, restaurants and cinemas, the Eastland Shopping Centre is the host and title sponsor for the 2022 ITTF-Oceania Senior and Youth Championships.
Innovative, play taking place from Monday 5th to Saturday 10th September, a major aim is to show the dynamic nature of table tennis to the general public; thus, a mall preferred to a sports hall.
Similar to many tournaments, the pandemic caused a break, the most recent edition being the Oceania Junior Championships in 2019 in Tonga.
It has been an frustrating past three years, now with a potential entry of over 100 players from 10 member associations expected, Barry Griffiths, ITTF-Oceania Chief Executive Office is understandably in an upbeat mood.
“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.
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.” Barry Griffiths
A qualifying tournament for the 2022 ITTF Youth World Championships in Tunis and for the 2023 ITTF World Championship Finals in Durban, a welcome visitor will be Petra Sörling, ITTF President.
Most certainly she can expect a warm welcome; no doubt Greg Balmforth, the General Manager at Eastland will make sure that a very special event will be witnessed.
“We are honoured to be hosting the first ever International Table Tennis Federation Oceania Championship to be held in a shopping centre. We have a long-standing relationship with many sporting associations and leagues in the east and we are thrilled to extend this to table tennis.
It’s our top priority to provide a safe and inclusive place to enable everyone at any age to have a positive experience and with the ITTF mantra of “Table Tennis For All For Life”, it felt like a natural fit to work together. Hosting an international event marks the start of something new, not just for Eastland but Ringwood too.” Greg Balmforth
Support from the Eastland Shopping Centre; also, the local state Victorian Government is on board. Under the direction of Steve Dimopoulos, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, backing is being afforded by the Significant Sporting Events Program.
“Our table tennis and para table tennis athletes have shined bright at Birmingham winning one gold, three silver and two bronze medals, and now we can experience some of the best players in Oceania battling it out right here in Melbourne.” Steve Dimopoulos
Prior to the tournament a three day ITTF-Oceania Continental Youth Training Camp will be conducted under the eagle eye of Patrick Wuertz; thus a very comprehensive itinerary forms the schedule.
“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 their first international camp and competition after a long break, it will be interesting to see how the players used this break to work on their table tennis performance.” Patrick Wuertz
An exciting five days of action awaits.
Live-streaming will be available on the Cluch platform via a dedicated ITTF-Oceania channel.
