As the 2022 Table Tennis Australia National Championships nears its conclusion in Caloundra this weekend, our Team Vic Para athletes have already finished their Nationals campaign with roaring success.

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

In the Teams competition which ended on Tuesday July 5, Victoria came away with medals in all three classes. Christopher Addis, Evgeny Savinov and Mark Nimmervoll fought hard in the final and came away with a silver medal in the Para Class 1-5, as did Trevor Hirth and Jake Ballestrino who took home the silver in the Para Class 6-10 event. In the Para Class 11 Rory Carroll and Steven Watts were triumphant finishing with a gold medal at the end of the afternoon.

Steven Watts has had a phenomenal return to competitive table tennis this week after the former Australian representative stepped away from competition for close to a decade. Following six weeks of training to get himself back into form, it didn’t take long for the Team Vic star to be winning medals once again much to everyone’s excitement.

“We were all thrilled to see Steve back and competing well, he did a fantastic job without a lot of preparation,” said Para coach Mick Tomlinson.

“The whole team did really well, 26 medals was a great achievement and it probably could have been more but unfortunately we had a couple of players pull out due to COVID and other reasons. But it didn’t matter in the end, all of our new and our experienced players were great, and everyone played really well.” Said Mick.

In the Class 6-11 Men’s Singles Team Vic had a strong showing with Rory Carroll taking away the gold beating fellow Victorian Jake Ballestrino in the final, Rory also won silver in the Class 11 Singles. Trevor Hirth took home the bronze medal. Jodi Elkington-Jones won the bronze in the Women’s Class 6-11 and Samuel Rizkalla also took a bronze in the Under 23 Class 6-11 Singles.

The class 2-5 Men’s Singles saw Victoria triumph again with Christopher Addis taking out the gold to add to his personal tally, while Steven Watts continued his amazing return with a silver medal in the Class 6 Men’s Singles.

The Class 6-8 Women’s Singles proved to be another strong event for Victoria, Rebecca Julian proving too strong for her competitors going on to win the gold medal whilst Jodi Elkington-Jones claimed bronze.

Jake Ballestrino continued his winning ways holding on for gold in the Class 7 Men’s Singles. It was double gold when Lin Ma finished on top in the Class 9-10 Men’s Singles, with Melissa Tapper taking out the Women’s Class 9-10 Singles title. Rounding out the singles medals.

The Doubles competition saw Jake Ballestrino and Trevor Hirth claim the top prize in the Class 6-10 Men’s, whilst Melissa Tapper and her partner from Queensland Andrea McDonnell took out the Women’s gold in the class 6-10. Silver went to the Victorian duo of Jodi Elkington-Jones and Rebecca Julian, Rebecca also took home a silver medal from the Women's Singles Class 6-11 following a hard fought final. Christopher Addis added yet another medal with a silver in the Class 1-5 Men’s Doubles. In the class 11 Men’s Doubles Rory Carroll partnered with Paralympian Sam Von Einem from South Australia to win gold.

In the Mixed Doubles Class 6-10 Jake Ballestrino ended his Nationals with even more gold ahead of fellow Victorian pair Trevor Hirth and Jodi Elkington-Jones, rounding out a very strong showing that saw Jake awarded with the 2022 Best Player Award in the Class 6-10 category. 

All of us at TTV and everyone throughout the Victorian table tennis community are immensely proud of how our Team Vic Para Squad represented the blue and teal at this year’s Nationals!

FULL RESULTS

The Senior team complete their Nationals campaign tonight as they battle for their Singles medals whilst the Juniors will conclude the 2022 Championships on Sunday night.