Townsville Table Tennis Association celebrates women’s participation with International Women’s Day event

Six years ago, the Townsville Table Tennis Association (TTTA) started a social event to coincide with International Women’s Day (IWD) to encourage greater female participation in sports. 
 
Since then, the event has grown to become the Association’s marquee event with a tournament and training camp. 
 
TTTA President Brendan Gaeta said the event held in the lead up to IWD has progressed a lot from the Saturday social event started in 2014.
 
“The event was started to give women of all ages the chance to come together to celebrate the achievements of women, raise awareness about women’s equality, and to promote the growth and development of women in not just table tennis, but all sports,” Gaeta said.
 
“Townsville Table Tennis Association is very passionate about not only increasing female participation in table tennis, but increasing female participation in all sports and supporting general equality,” he added.

This year, TTTA hosted a women's only training session alongside a junior, social and main competition on Saturday 5 March - all held free of charge. It was designed to give female players of all abilities an opportunity to compete against each other in a competitive and fun environment. 
 
The training camp saw TTA National Coach – Performance Pathway  (Able-Bodied) Eva Jeler, who in conjunction with local head coach Olav Dahl, Queensland High Performance coaches Matt Pettitt and Kelsey Le Maistre, and Cairns coach Paul Uttley host the session over the weekend as well as in the lead up.
 
“We were truly honoured to have Eva in Townsville for this event. Eva is well-known to be one of the world's leading coaches and has been responsible for producing some of the world’s top players,” Gaeta said.
 
“To have one of the world’s top coaches with us running our training sessions was a great experience for everyone,” he added.
 
The 36 players who participated in the open competition came from far and wide - from Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gold Coast, Northern Territory and even Tasmania - with Australian junior and 2021 QLD Senior Female Player of the Year Matilda Alexandersson taking home the Nula Redhead Memorial Trophy after winning the final. 
 
It was a weekend full of table tennis with proceedings continuing on Sunday, with a training session and competition for players of all ages and abilities.
 
“It was amazing to see so many people support what was a truly amazing weekend,” Gaeta added.

“This International Women’s Day Tournament and Training Camp is a special event on our annual calendar and we are hopeful of running this event indefinitely moving forward,” he said.