2026/27 National Hopes Tour kicks off in South Australia

TTA's 2026/27 National Hopes Tour got underway last week at the Houghton and East Adelaide Table Tennis Club, South Australia, delivering more opportunities for Australia’s emerging table tennis talent to develop within a high-performance environment.  

The National Hopes Tour will continue in early July, making its first stop in Victoria of the 2026/27 schedule from July 6-10, at the Ballarat Table Tennis Centre. 

YOU CAN BOOK YOUR SPOT FOR THE VICTORIA EVENT HERE. 

In a fun-filled three days, which featured training sessions, high-performance coaching and competition, the 2026/27 tour started as it means to go on, with the importance of learning, competing and having fun all taking precedence in South Australia.  

Throughout the week, the athletes participated in a session with Tim Burke, TTA's National Integrity Manager, whilst Shaun Crowell also ran a strength and conditioning session. South Australian coaches Kay Crowell, Graeme Shaughnessy, Andrew Goodsell, Anne Cottrell, and Trevor Walker also provided guidance and coaching throughout the week for the athletes.

The South Australian event trialled a shorter-format Hopes Tour aimed at reducing time away from school while still delivering meaningful development opportunities, and athletes received pro-rata points as part of the race to represent Australia at the ITTF-Oceania Hopes Week 2027. 

There was some outstanding table tennis on offer throughout the event, which saw gold medals for Oliver Kong in the Hopes Boys, Zihui Rose Wang in the Hopes Girls, and Charlie Baker in the Pathways competition.  

The silver medals were claimed by Seungheon Sean Yoo and Arianna Zhang in the Hopes Boys and Girls, respectively, whilst Michael Li took the Silver in the Pathways competition. 

Rounding off the medals were Will Neelawala (Hopes Boys), Jade Phan (Hopes Girls) and Lefan Zhang (Pathways), who picked up the bronze medals to round off the tournament side of proceedings. 

The tour had 30 participants, which included representatives from South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.

Melissa Tapper, AIS Gen32 Scholarship Coach at Table Tennis Australia, was thrilled to open the 2026/27 Hopes Program in South Australia, stating: "Having 30 athletes attend the first National Hopes Tour of the new season was a fantastic result. Across the three days, athletes had the opportunity to build their understanding of what high performance looks like, both on and off the table, including a valuable presentation on integrity. I was incredibly impressed by the focus, work ethic, and fighting spirit displayed throughout the tour, and I’m excited to see how these learnings translate into future development and performance.”

A reminder that the National Hopes Tour will continue in early July, making its first stop in Victoria of the 2026/27 schedule from July 6-10, at the Ballarat Table Tennis Centre, and you can book your spot here.