February 6, 2009
Storm Sweeps Up At Table Tennis
Jerry Yan of Rick Hansen Secondary shows his winning form that saw him
advance to the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletics Association
individual table tennis championships.
Photo By Rob Beintema
Courtesy of The Mississauga News / By Gary McCarthy
Mississauga, Ontario - The Rick Hansen Storm has shown once again it is a dominant force when it comes to high school table tennis.
The Storm swept to four titles today in the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletics Association individual table tennis championships.
“Every one of them is committed,” said Storm coach Veronica Wong, whose team won almost everything in sight in mid-January at the ROPSSAA team championships. “The players and teachers put in a lot of hard work. The students practice hard all the time.”
Hansen captured the junior girls, senior girls’ doubles, the senior mixed doubles and the senior boys’ singles in the day-long tournament at Brampton’s Harold Brathwaite Secondary.
Wong clearly has a lot of faith and confidence in her players. She matched up Anson Mo and Andrea Li only a week ago and they combined to win the gold medal in straight sets in the senior mixed doubles, beating Victor Relleve and Amy Chau of Brathwaite.
“Individually, they’re both very good and you try and fit as many players as you can into an event like this,” said Wong.
For Li, it was her third ROPSSAA gold medal while Mo won his first.
Vanny Tang of Hansen beat teammate Nardin Bekhit for the gold medal, winning two sets to one in the junior girls singles championship match.
“Let’s say it was intense,” Tang replied, with a smile on her face, when she was asked what it felt like going up against a teammate for the title.
The senior girls doubles was an all-Hansen final too, with Mei Lin Chen and Amanda Wong winning two sets to one over Aliyah Mohamed and Sandra Tam.
The Applewood Secondary twosome of Anumta Khan and Amara Hakak took the gold medal in the junior girls’ doubles event, beating their opponents from Brathwaite, Melodie Du Ly and Michelle Li, 2-1.
Khan and Hakak have become very close friends since they met at the start of the school year last September.
“We’ve been really good friends since we started school together,” said Khan. “We have classes together and we live pretty close to each other.”
“It’s all about good team work too,” added Hakak.
Applewood also captured the gold medal in the senior boys’ doubles with Sahil Saxena and David Yue winning 3-1 over Brampton’s Heart Lake.
Mariz Iskander of St. Joan of Arc was the silver medal winner in the open girls’ competition, losing in straight sets in the championship final to Piumika Fernando of Brampton’s Turner Fenton Secondary.
The Woodlands won a pair of championships as well. Joseph Zheng and Steve Lu combined to win three sets to none over Joseph Zia and Hamy Li of Hansen in the junior boys’ doubles and Yuan Ding of The Woodlands won 3-2 in sets over Tian Zhang from Brampton’s Heart Lake Second.
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