Youth Olympic table tennis qualifiers a special event

The Cook Islands ticked all the right boxes in its bid to host the 2014 Youth Olympic Games Qualification event in May next year.

Oceania table tennis representative Michael Brown is on the island to inspect venues for the hosting of the event and says the Telecom Sports Arena in Nikao is perfect to host the tournament.

He has also been inspecting venues to house the expected 100 plus players from all over the globe competing in the tournament – the last opportunity for young table tennis players to qualify for the youth Olympics.

“It’s a very special event in that it’s the last opportunity for players to qualify and the Cook Islands is hosting the event for the first time,” says Brown.

Brown adds that the Cook Islands was seen as a good and safe location to host the youth event.

“Anyone and everyone wanting to qualify for the Youth Olympics will make their way to the Cooks for this opportunity.”

It’s predicted that over 130 youth table tennis players and officials from between 12 and 20 countries will flock to Rarotonga for the tournament to be staged from May 21 to 31 next year.

As well as helping the local association prepare and organise for the tournament, Brown has also been running training workshops and sessions at the Mangaia hostel.

While on his current trip he has introduced para-table tennis for people with disabilities.

He will return again to the country where he plans to head to the three main outer islands of Aitutaki, Mauke and Mangaia – where table tennis is booming.

He says he would like to see the same sort of level of development of table tennis on Rarotonga and believes that the qualifiers next year, which will include an ‘adopt a school’ programme where players align themselves with local schools, will help boost table tennis development on Rarotonga.

Brown says that after speaking to a number of table tennis lovers on the island, there seems to be a belief that table tennis is only a social game – but next year’s tournament will show talented Cook Islands table tennis players that the sport is taken serious everywhere else in the world.

“As this is all part of the Olympic movement – it will be a special event.”