For four days, the León Najnudel sports center of CeNARD was the scene of the international WTT Youth Contender tournament that had more than 200 competitors from 12 countries, between 10 and 19 years old.
“It was an excellent opportunity for all our athletes, those on the national team and others who are not, to participate in this type of events that give us international exposure,” said the Argentine coach, Matías Alto.
During the competition, which took place from November 14 to 17, the singles events were held in both branches and the doubles events in mixed format in the U11, U13, U15, U17 and U19 categories. The Argentine team won a total of 10 medals, with one gold, six silver and three bronze.
“As for the results, the tournament was very good, the boys in the minor categories were among the best and that shows that a good job is being done,” says Alto. “The tournament was very good, the organization respected the international line drop that must be met and everything went perfectly,” adds the Mendoza coach.
For his part, the president of the Argentine Table Tennis Federation (FATM), Fernando Joffre, commented: “the event was very enriching for our boys, we always try to organize these world series tournaments so that our players have international exposure. For this event we had a record number of registrations with almost 80 Argentines and a hundred players from neighboring countries and Korea, the United States, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Portugal and Spain, which is very good for our boys to measure themselves.”
The FATM will continue seeking to add this type of tournaments to continue promoting minor players. “The idea is to be able to repeat it next year and have a circuit in Buenos Aires that adds to the date that we already have confirmed for Rosario,” clarifies Joffre.
The Argentine podiums:
U11 Male Category
1 Valentino Marcial
2 Julián Alto
3 Valentino Alto
U11 Female Category
2 Chiara Bellomo
3 Isabella Olivares
3 martina cruz
U13 Female Category
2 María Victoria Guardia
U13 Male Category
2 Luca Marcial
U15 Female Category
3 Malena Gimenez
U15 Male Category
2 Tobias Martinez
3 Giuliano La Via
Category U15 Mixed doubles
2 Santino Rossi / Luciana Frias Paz
