world junior championships 2008

This year, the 2008 World Junior Championships are being held in Madrid, Spain. The US has sent Olena Sowers, Lily Zhang, Ariel Hsing, and Isabella Chen for the Junior Girls' Team, and they caught the attention of everyone on Saturday in the team event:


After being down 2-0 against Chile, Olena Sowers (one of Atha and my good friends and teammates in last year's World Junior Championships at Stanford University in California) turned the tie around and sparked a comeback that kept the US from elimination in the first round of the team event. While the US ended up falling to Japan the next morning, they still caused quite a stir with their 3-2 come-from-behind win over Chile. Click here for the story from ittf.com.

For more stories and live results from Worlds, click here or visit ittf.com.

New ITTF Eligibility Rule FOR NON US-CITIZENS UNDER 21

Recently, the US Women's Olympic coach, Teodor Gheorghe, emailed me with these news:

"If any[one] was born in another country and never represented USA at the World Junior Championships and want[s] to represent USA in the future, please read the attached document, fill out and sign the form... and send it back to me ASAP"

And since I can't figure out how to put the actual document up, here's the copy and pasted version:

New ITTF Eligibility rule registration form

According to the new ITTF eligibility rule, players under 21 years old and were born in another country, but wish to represent the United States have to be registered with ITTF through USATT.

The new eligibility rule applies only for the World Title events - World Championships, World Junior Championships, and World Cup and is as follows:

In addition to the provisions of 3.8 (the general rule of eligibility) players being eligible to represent an association other than the one they intend to represent, shall register with the ITTF, through this new association.

Such players shall not represent the new association before:
* 3 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 15 when registered;
* 5 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 18 but at least 15 years of age when registered;
* 7 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 21 but at least 18 years of age when registered.

Players being 21 years of age or older will not be registered with the ITTF and will not be eligible to represent a new association at World Title events.

Players who have already represented USA at a previous World Title event will keep that eligibility and do not need to register with ITTF.

Players who are under 21 years of age, born in another country, and have never represented USA at a World Title event must fill out and sign the below application for registration with the ITTF and send it to USATT HQ, attention Doru Gheorghe or by email to: Doru@usatt.org

So, if this applies to you, and you want to represent the US in future international tournaments, EMAIL DORU for the form!!! I also have a copy of the form as well, so you can email me at so90crazy@gmail.com too, but it would probably be better for you to just contact Doru directly.

Cheers!

Junior and Cadet Camp

Ah, the good old days of being on the cadet and junior teams. One of the biggest goals of a young American table tennis player is to make the cadet team (if you're under 15 as of Jan. 1 of the coming year) or the junior team (if you're under 18 as of Jan. 1 of the coming year) or both if you're a talented little youngster. Every year, the cadet and junior team trials go down at the U.S. Nationals in Vegas, where juniors and cadets compete for 16 spots on the boys' and girls' junior and cadet teams. It's super intense. You'd be surprised how much emotion runs through the players and their families. Now that I'm past that phase of my life (I'm old and 19 y.o. now :-p), I look back and shake my head at my past intensity and tears shed. But as anyone who spends 10 hours a week practicing table tennis or commutes 1 or even 2 hours for practice or spends their summers abroad, training for table tennis, can attest, making the junior or cadet team is a big deal. Members of the national junior teams get sent to camps and tournaments all around the world, all expenses paid. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

The reason this topic came up with me is because on the usatt.org website, there's a little blurb about how ClubJoola in Rockville, MD, is going to host the summer training camp for cadets and juniors this year. Opened in Dec. 2007, it seems like a pretty cool site, with easy access to Washington, D.C. and its attractions, such as the Smithsonian, the White House, and the National Mall. I'm interested in seeing how the place is and how the camp goes.

I like how there are more and more full-time table tennis centers popping up around the US. For example, there's Fan Yiyong's club in Seattle, the Potomac Table Tennis Club in Maryland, the TopSpin Club. I hope to see more!

That's it for now. Peace.