UK Senior Six Nations champion Chris Doran (England) has just signed up for the Power NI Ulster Open Table Tennis championships.
National champions are in abundance at the revitalised Ulster event this weekend and this truly international event is graced by the controversial Gavin Rumgay (Scotland), after his outbursts in front of his home crowd at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Gavin is Scottish champ on six occasions, but is well behind another UK hero, Ryan Jenkins who has nine Welsh titles and over 60 UK Grand Prix titles to his name, as the Welsh Wizard renews friendship in Lisburn with Ulster’s leading coach, John Murphy, who has five Irish National title victories.
Power NI Ulster Table Tennis Open title holders John Murphy and Ashley Givan (Dungannon) find themselves down the seeding list despite convincing 2013 victories, listed at only’ 8th positions in the Men’s and Women’s Singles respectively.
Both stars have moved on from their Ulster 2013 successes, with the popular Murphy, now responsible for Ulster’s High Performance delivery, and 3 times Women’s National title holder Givan (18 years), back from the Glasgow Commonwealths and studying media at QUB.
Ulster hopes rest on the shoulders of Irish and Ulster No. 1, national champ Paul McCreery (22) from Crossgar, and Ashley Robinson (21) from the dynamic Fivemiletown Academy, under coach Arthur Brett.
The Power NI Seeding Committee has placed Scottish extrovert Rumgay as favourite to take the impressive £1k men’s top prize, with another G2104 athlete, Hannah Lynch-Dawson (Cavan), recently promoted to Irish No.1 woman, as leading female in the three-day table tennis extravaganza in the Lisburn Racquets Centre, supported by Lisburn City Council, Power NI, Table Tennis Ulster, Volunteer Now and Disability Sport NI.
All spectators are welcome to the expansive Badminton Centre with play commencing at 6.30pm on Friday with Men’s and Women’s Singles qualification rounds and Restricted Singles qualification round.
On Saturday from 9am onwards are the Junior (U11 U15), U21 Singles and Senior Events to finals; main quarter-finals to commence at 6pm; the final sessions are on Sunday with Junior (U13 U18), Veterans and Disability Events.
Power NI Ulster Open Table Tennis main seeds:
Men’s Singles: 1. Gavin Rumgay (Sco); 2. Ryan Jenkins (Wales); 3. Paul McCreery (Ire/Ulst); 4. Chris Doran (Eng); 5. Miroslav Horesji (Cze); 6. Vladislavs Agurjuranovs (Lit); 7. Ashley Robinson (Ire/ Ulst)); 8. John Murphy (Ire)
Ladies Singles: 1. Hannah Lynch-Dawson (Ire/ Ulst); 2. Katie McGlone (Ire/Lein); 3. Marta Zareba (Leinster); 4. Sarah Timlin (Leinster); 5. Chloe O’Halloran (Munster); 6. Emma Ludlow (Ulster); 7. Amanda Mogey (Ulster); 8. Ashley Givan (Ire/Ulst).