Alfred Dela-Pena 2024 Table Tennis World Championship Fundraiser

Thanks to everyone that donated. Alfred has safely arrived in the Republic of Korea for the 2024 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Busan.

The team consists of:

1. Timothy Choi

2. Alfred Dela-Pena (Waitemata)

3. Max Henderson

Coach: Yantao (Daniel) Wei

The journey to get there wasn’t as simple as hopping on a plane. The team was selected in late 2023, and a coach was appointed thereafter. Yantao Wei initiated a training program for the team in early 2024 at the Tornado Table Tennis Club on the North Shore. The costs for the coach were covered by TTNZ, and the players had to source their own funding to attend the event.

The tournament runs from February 16th to 25th. The team departed Wednesday afternoon and arrived late on the same day in Busan. Thursday will be a practice day before their first match against Chile on Friday. They are placed in a tough group comprising five teams, which also includes the hosts Korea Republic, India, and Poland. The NZ team will play one match a day.

The matches will be streamed on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams

Thanks everyone!