No time to breathe for young Sandro Cavaillé. Having just returned from the U15 World Cup, where he won a very nice bronze medal in doubles, the Istrian table tennis player played in the Interclub Championship this weekend with the N1. The opportunity to be honored by his Istres TT club.
This time, they weren’t on the same side! Coincidentally with the calendar, Istres hosted Courbevoie this weekend in the National 1 championship while just a few days ago Sandro Cavaillé and Noah Vitel won together in Sweden a bronze medal at the U15 world championship.
Before the championship match, the two young players were entitled to a small ceremony organized by Istres in their honor. “It’s nice to have so many people behind me, but there’s no question of getting a big head, I force myself to stay with my feet on the ground, we specifies Sandro Cavaillé. We really weren’t far from reaching the final but I’m very happy to have obtained this bronze medal. I knew I could do it, even though it was going to be hard.”
“He has the keys in hand”
The young Istrian table tennis player has always had ambition. At only 11, he told us he wanted to compete in the world championships. It is now successful as a young person, but he of course sees much further: “I now hope that it will come true in senior! It would be nice to do the same journey as Félix Lebrun. If I go as far as him, that would be great.”he adds when asked about the former Istres player, who has since become a double Olympic medalist and world number 1 in doubles with his brother Alexis.
And when we ask Jean-Nicolas Barelier, National Technical Director of the French Table Tennis Federation, about the future of Sandro Cavaillé, he answers: “The under 15 category is a transition category, it is in junior that we really identify each other’s potential. Sandro arrives at a crucial moment for him… he is number one French in his category, so he has the keys in hand to stay that way. “It’s time for him to confirm this new status as a world medalist.”
The DTN is in any case delighted with the latest excellent results from the French ping: “This bodes well for our sport! Since the Tokyo Olympics, 3 years ago, we have gone from 27th place in the world to 5th for girls and from 12th to 2nd for boys. There is an explosion of results accompanied by a solid development project which allows us to welcome the 25% more licensees this year. The idea now is to assume this new status.”
photo credit JM Darras maritima media
