Waitemata Table Tennis for Alfred DelaPena

Did you know that Table Tennis has the highest global membership of any sport, with 222 member nations of the International Table Tennis Federation out of 226 possibles? And, it is played both competitively and recreationally throughout New Zealand by over 100,000 persons, in family homes, schools, workplaces and activity centres.

Waitemata Table Tennis is the home of Table Tennis in West Auckland and one of our local rising stars is Alfred DelaPena. While only 16, Alfred is already one of the top under 18 age group players in the country and has won an age group event at every tournament he has entered this year, including the TTNZ North Island Championships.

North Islands: Gold u18 boys, Gold u18 doubles, Silver u21 singles, Gold u21 doubles

Wellington Open: 3rd Open Mens Singles, 1st u21 singles

Otago Open: 1st u18 singles, 1st u18 doubles

Waitemata Open: 1st u21 singles

Oceania Cup Qualification: 3rd Open Mens Singles

Alfred has the potential to be the top junior in the country, and to be the first home grown Waitemata player to make top 10 in Mens for over 20 years. Alfred also has the potential to be a great association coach and has already proactively shown an interest and impressive skills in this area by running Waitemata’s junior coaching programme this year.

Due to Alfred’s results this year he has been picked to represent NZ at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Capetown in November/December this year.

This will be an expensive trip for the selected team as there is currently no funding available from TTNZ for High Performance Teams.

We are expecting costs of between $5,000 and $6,000 with players required to pay an upfront deposit of $3,000 to secure their position in the team.

Waitemata Table Tennis is actively fundraising to help Alfred, and on his behalf we are seeking donations and/or sponsorship for him. Any support you, or your organization, could provide would be greatly appreciated.