TTA National Hopes Tour Victoria completes 2025/26 schedule

Table Tennis Australia proudly hosted its final National Hopes Tour of the 2025/26 schedule in Traralgon, Victoria, this week, as players from all around Australia descended to the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium from April 13-17.

As always, the Hopes Tour was comprised of a four-day training camp from Monday-Thursday, where our participants were treated to four days of fun, hard work and important learning lessons, delivered by National Head Coach Ricardo Oliveira, Pathways and Performance Lead Simon Gerada and AIS Gen32 Development Coach Melissa Tapper.

As well as sharpening their skills on the table, the entrants were treated to daily Q&A’s with a variety of people, including Australian Olympian Hwan Bae, Table Tennis Australia Integrity Manager Tim Burke, Physiotherapists Brandon Ngo and Jane Yan, Table Tennis India National Coach Anshuman Roy, and VIS Performance Scientist – Skill Acquisition Ryan Hatfield.

Bae, who took part in the National Hopes Program ten years ago as a junior player, said: “It’s always nice to be back home and to see the players training hard. I feel blessed and grateful to know that the kids look up to me. I have a responsibility to work harder and practice more for them.”

As we moved into Friday and the competition phase of the format, the standard of table tennis was remarkably high, with countless participants competing for the medals and those sought-after Hopes Points.

Medals were awarded for both Hopes Boys/Girls, and Mini Hopes Boys/Girls (aged 10 and under).

Upon the conclusion of the competition, Melissa Tapper added: “It’s been a fantastic week here in Traralgon. We had our four-day camp and then the competition day, and it has been action-packed and a whole lot of fun. We’ve had presentations from some special people, and we hope that this tour has provided more than just on-table practice. Having the presentations every day was so insightful for the children and it was fantastic for them to listen in and get the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions.”

Full Medal Winners:

Hopes Boys:

Gold – Daniel Lin

Silver – Zhile Yao

Bronze – Jayden Cao / Sean Yoo

Hopes Girls:

Gold – Angela Yuan

Silver – Aoran Sun

Bronze – Clara Wang

Mini Hopes Boys –

Gold – Jayden Cao

Silver – Chengning Yang

Bronze – Oliver Kong

Mini Hopes Girls

Gold – Audrey Jin

Silver – Arianna Zhang

Bronze – Lucia Lin