Table Tennis Victoria shone at the 2022 Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Awards winning awards for Team of the Year and Coach of the Year.

With a crowd of almost 150 people, the celebration held last night at PwC Southbank marked the fantastic achievements of Victorian sporting heroes, legends and all those who work hard behind the scenes to make sport more accessible.

The two awards that Table Tennis Victoria (TTV) won were the Team Vic Para Squad wining the Love the Game Team of the Year and Para Coach Alois Rosario winning Coach/Fitness Leader of the Year.

Following their phenomenal performance at the 2022 Table Tennis Australia National Championships in Caloundra earlier this year the Team Vic Para Squad were worthy winners of the Love the Game Team of the Year award.

During the Championships the Para Team finished with a brilliant 26 medals including 12 gold, 10 silver and 4 bronze across the Teams, Doubles and Singles events.

“The whole team did really well, 26 medals was a great achievement, all of our new and our experienced players were great, and everyone played really well.” Said TTV Para Coach Mick Tomlinson after the championships.

Accepting the award and discussing how he feels coaching the Team Vic Para Squad Mick said, “I couldn’t get to the Olympics myself, so I’m just trying to give back to all the other players out there that are trying to learn the game and I’m just there to help the players as best I can. They do all the work and if anything I do helps them get to the Paralympics that’s my job done,”

“In the end it comes down to trusting your players and treating them right.” Mick said.

The Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Coach/Fitness Leader of the Year award is Alois Rosario’s second Victorian Coach of the Year award in 2022 after being crowned Southern Cross Trophies Coach of the Year at the 2021 Victorian Sport Awards which were held in June earlier this year at Melbourne Park.

The national Para Coach for Table Tennis Australia spearheaded the country’s Tokyo Paralympics campaign which brought home the highest number of table tennis medals ever (two golds and four silvers) while one of his athletes, Qian Yang, was named the 2021 Australian Para Player of the Year.

Rosario also plays a major role in state and national coaching courses, Alois’ training tutorials are made available via his Ping Skills website, and he devotes time to establishing better Para programs across Victoria.

Alois is currently in Spain coaching the Australian Para Team at the World Para Championships where on Monday night Victorian duo Lina Lei and Qian Yang became World Champions.

Accepting the award on his behalf, TTV CEO Gen Dohrmann said, “Alois is fantastic, he’s been a long-term coach and a long-term contributor to Victorian table tennis, and it’s been wonderful to see him apply his coaching craft. Seeing what he’s been able to do for our para-athletes is just incredible,”

“He’s also great at mentoring the next generation of coaches and sharing his own skills through his website as well as coaching tutorials, he’s just a great contributor to the community,” she added.

Para athlete Qian Yang was also named as a finalist for the My Sport Live Elite Athlete of the Year award rounding out a great night for table tennis.

For more information and a list of all the finalists and winners from the 2022 Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Awards click here.