Event Photos, click here
This weekend finally drew the curtain on a sparkling season for London Progress, a season which saw the club crowned British Champions for the eighth consecutive year, while at the same time hosting no less than twenty five major regional and national tournaments in its brand new £3 million Sport England funded headquarters at the superbly run Southall Sports Centre. And what a weekend it proved to be, with a wonderfully successful tournament for players with Learning Disabilities on the Friday, followed, on the Saturday and Sunday, by the best attended Greater London Championships for over a decade.
With this record of success, it was no surprise that it was London Progress who walked away with the Men's Singles and Doubles Titles, while coming runners up in four other events. Congratulations go to Progress No.1,Terry Young, for retaining his Men's title with his narrow victory over British League team mate, Darius Knight, and it was the Progress pairing of Egle Adomelyte and Alex Echavarria who triumphed over fellow Progress stars Daniel Cannon and Ashley Stokes. Egle was less fortunate in the Woman's singles having to settle for second place behind the former Chinese national star, M Ma. Progress also had to settle for runner- up medals in the Men's Banded event, where Daniel Ives narrowly lost in the fifth and in the Boys Cadet Final where Alex Fegredo was just unable to overcome the experience of the ever impressive William Maybanks.
In addition to the above, there were two other outstanding performances at the weekend. The first saw ten year old West London Academy star Igor Morais, still at Primary School, go all the way to the finals of the Boy's Under 13 Event only to succumb at the final hurdle to the older and more experienced Reece Tan. Igor will certainly be one for the England selectors to look out for.
The second great performance of the weekend saw new Progress recruit, Dhavat Pandya, raise his game to defeat the highly competitive England No 20, Abdul Wuraola and reach the semi finals of the Men's Open, and give England No.9, Darius Knight, quite a game in the semi finals.
The weekend's activities started early on Friday morning when teams from across West London began arriving for the inaugural West London Learning Disability Tournament. With sixty competitors and a small army of Progress volunteers and staff from Active Ealing and the London Sports Forum, Southall Sports Centre was buzzing with activity and excitement. The day got off with an informal and relaxed coaching session assisted by the London Progress volunteer coaches and Active Ealing staff. As more and more competitors arrived, the atmosphere became ever more charged with a sense of occasion and the competitors were not to be disappointed. The Great Britain Learning Disabilities Team had been warming up and were now ready to provide a scintillating display of table tennis that any experienced table tennis player would have been proud of. With a delightful mixture of skill and showmanship, the two British LDTT Champions entertained the crowd for over half an hour.
A short lunch break was followed by the tournament proper and it was a joy to watch the sixty competitors battle it out in a competitive but good-humoured manner. Everyone seemed to be cheering everybody else on, and by the time of the presentations, everyone in the hall could rightfully feel themselves to be winners. The players had proved that they could compete in the sporting arena like anybody else in the community.
Active Ealing and its Southall team proved that they could successfully host a potentially challenging table tennis event. And London Progress had proved that they were truly a club for the whole community, not just in words but in deeds as well.
As the Ealing Mayoress, Councillor Pagan, presented medals and certificates to each and every participant, London Progress, Active Ealing and the LSF were busy planning their next project; a Special Schools Table Tennis Tournament to be held in October of this year.
