Full Results for Teams and Individuals

Preview

Daily updates, results and photos for the National Secondary Schools Championships being held in Palmerston North and hosted by Table Tennis Manawatu will be posted here.

With several teams joining the competition from the South Island this year and good entry numbers in the boys we are all set for an interesting competition. Teams events take place on the 4th and 5th September with Individuals on the 6th.

Thanks once again to Shona Cudby and Matthew Ball from Table Tennis Manawatu on hosting this year's event.

Day One Report:

It was a fascinating first day for the NZ Secondary Schools Champs in Palmerston North, with a high level of competitiveness in A Grade. With several of the leading players from 2016 graduated, there was an opportunity for several other schools to medal.

In the end it took a massive effort from Yu Yang Sun of Westlake to keep his school in contention for another medal. Dark horses, St Peters, threatened to deny them with the brilliance of number one, Ricky Yeung. The match between the Cambridge School's Matthew So and Sun was critical, and they shared four consecutive 12-10 sets. But, in the end the extra tournament experience of Sun carried him home 11-8.

Auckland Grammar, after the late introduction of Ivan Zhou, proved too strong in the group, to again reach the semi-finals. Palmerston North Boys High was unfortunate in losing 3-4 to both Westlake and St Peters, with Jae Lee pushing Ricky Yeung to five sets in their critical match.

The other side of the draw was a relative doddle for the top seeds, Burnside High, although St Kentigerns' Nathan Xu won both singles against them. MacLeans College justified their seeding for the semi-finals, pipping St Kentigerns 4-3. Hero of the day was Kerry Huang-Chen, who beat Jonathan Low 3-2 in the critical match. Kerry also had an unexpectedly convincing victory over Sang Yong Park,

Burnside plays Westlake and Grammar plays Macleans in tomorrow's semi-finals,

MacLeans College 2 has dominated B Grade so far, while Palmerston North Boys 2 and Tauranga Boys High are unbeaten in C Grade.

In the girls event Burnside High and MacLeans will play tomorrow to decide the title.

Day Two Report

Congratulations to Burnside High School from Christchurch in taking out the double, winning both boys and girls teams events at National Secondary Schools Champs in Palmerston North.

Auckland Grammar (boys) and MacLeans College (girls) were runners up.

Has the double been done before? If so, when? Can you beat us to finding the answer?

Final Day Report: Individuals

After the heartbreak of yesterday's teams final Kevin Lin started the individuals event highly motivated. The Auckland Grammar student beat Ricky Yeung from St Peters in straight sets in his Under 19 boys semi-final and faced top seed, Alfred de la Pena from Liston College, in the final. Alfred had his work cut out in beating yesterday's Burnside star, Alex Zhou in 5 sets. The final was another nail-biter, with Kevin taking the fifth 11-7.

Another Burnside Star, Avon Liu did not drop a set in the under 19 girls round robin. Zhiying Cheng from MacLeans was equally emphatic in placing second, ahead of Sophie Low.

Andrew Fleming defeated Andy Wu in the boys plate final.

In under 15s there was no surprise in seeing Nathan Xu untroubled, winning all matches in straight sets. San Yong Park was runner-up, defeating Ivan Zhou in the semi-finals. There was another ding-dong battle, and ultimately a fifth set advantage loss for Jonathan Li against Yu Yang Sun, who then faced Nathan.

Burnside's Jiayi Zhou dominated the under 15 girls event, not dropping a set. Manawatu local, Abbey Webb was runner-up.

Jack Quested from Westlake Boys beat team-mate Sunny Ang in the plate final.

Well done to Shona, Matt, Ron and Val and their support team!