Sunday 24 April twelve junior members and about the same number of parents and supervisors traveled to Heerhugowaard to watch the youngsters at the starter’s tournament organized by the local table tennis club DOV. Of course the trainers/coaches Guus Korper and Martin Amersfoort were there as well, to make sure things ran as smooth as possible.
At this tournament 39 players from the entire North Holland region battled for the prizes. Condition for participation was that the players had none or little competition experience.
The tournament started with 5 groups of 8 players of different levels. A lot of fun was the main objective, but most players energetically went for the full victory.
From the 5 groups of 8 players no less than 4 players (Yavuz, Taha, Arthur, and Pengyu) made it to the final round with 8 players, which would be played after a short break. The other TTV Amstelveen players also qualified for the various follow-up rounds.
In the final group, with the strongest players of the event, Yavuz proved too strong for the entire field. Yavuz became the champion of the day, closely followed by Pengyu and Taha, a great result. In the remaining groups, where the level was quite high, Vrishti managed to take 1st place through strong and concentrated performance. Of course, the coaching of her father also contributed to her result.
After the prize-giving ceremony all players, parents and coaches travelled together back to Amstelveen and are all looking forward to the next tournament and the competition which will start again in September with new competition players.
