Best players disadvantaged at table tennis tournament

Sunday's format for the first handicap table tennis tournament didn't make it easy for some of the Yukon's more skilled players in the sport.

Sunday’s format for the first handicap table tennis tournament didn’t make it easy for some of the Yukon’s more skilled players in the sport.

To level the playing field, Table Tennis Yukon used a modified points system, which was based on national rating that gave a minus one for every additional 25 points that one player had over his or her opponent.

Some of the players who competed on Sunday were first timers to the sport, which resulted in Table Tennis Yukon evaluating them during the warm up period and ball parking where they ranked as a player.

“It seemed to work out really well actually,” said David Stockdale, president of Table Tennis Yukon. “The top player got eliminated in the semi finals by Alex (Zheng) and I think Alex had minus nine to work with. It’s nice to see it work that way because then the better players don’t end up necessarily with the top prize and that’s how you would like to see it work out.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to work out, at least be a very competitive game if not an upset, which is what you are really looking for in something like this and when you see close matches near the end, you know that the ranking and the rating has been pretty accurate.”

Multiple nets and dividers filled the gym at Whitehorse Elementary School to accommodate the 19 competing players.

Players were divided up in four groups, which after a round robin style of competition placed the top two individuals in the A pool, while eight other competitors qualified for the B division. The playoff round began with a crossover semi-final match.

After Zheng, 13, defeated top ranked player, Kevin Murphy in the semi-finals, he then drew Ken Madsen in the A final. Madsen managed to get a semi-final victory over his son, Malkolm, in what was a close three game match. The deciding game ended 11-9.

Madsen, who is a former Yukon badminton champion and has been playing table tennis for around five years now, was higher ranked than Zheng and started out the match with a minus two.

Despite the disadvantage, Madsen got off to a quick start, scoring three straight points to give himself a 1-0 advantage.

Zheng managed to tie it up at one, but this was all Madsen allowed him to get and won the game 11-1 after scoring 10 unanswered points.

Zheng found his form in the second game, winning the first two rallies to give himself a four point lead over his opponent. Madsen eventually battled back and managed to tie up the contest at 3-3.

With the score tied up at five all, Madsen strung together a solid five straight points and won the second game on a shot that found the right-hand corner of the table.

The final score was 11-6.

“It’s always fun to win, but it’s just fun to participate,” Madsen said. “We had a fun match, Alex is a good player. He played in the Arctic Winter Games for the Yukon last time and he’s really improving fast, so it was a good game.”

Other results at the table tennis tournament included Wendy Boothroyd, who placed first in the B division, defeating Mustafa Syed in the final.

Prizes were awarded to top finishers at the tournament, who got to select in order of highest finish. Some of the prizes included a watch, table tennis racket, reading light and a miniature glass table.

Table Tennis Yukon is also running a beginners class every Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Whitehorse Elementary.

The beginners class has been running it for four weeks now and costs $2 per lesson.

Stockdale said anyone is welcome to attend and if an individual participates in all 10 lessons they won’t be charged a membership fee if they want to join the club.