On August 20th, government officials and local community leaders gathered in Oakville to celebrate the Oakville Table Tennis Team’s remarkable victories in the 2022 Canadian National Table Tennis Championships. The Recognition Award Ceremony was attended by over 60 guests, which included the Honorable Victor Oh (Senator), the delegation from the Mayor office, Town and Regional councillors, and the leaders of local business associations.
All 13 Oakvillian members of team Ontario belong to the Three10 Table Tennis Club in Oakville. Of the ten medals they captured, two were gold, four were silver, and four were bronze.
Senator Oh was one of the event’s special guests; giving his speech in both English and Mandarin, he singled out praise for the Oakville Community Table Tennis Association’s (OCTTA) “commitment to encouraging and supporting our community’s youth to keep an active and healthy lifestyle as well as teaching them the essential values of sportsmanship and camaraderie.”
An important point of the evening's discussion, made by Councillor Tom Adams, was recognizing the importance of supporting local associations and sports teams, and helping to locate suitable facilities to grow the sport – a point echoed by the co-founder and vice-chair of OCTTA, who called on all local community leaders and officials to support the team’s vision, and help find a long-term suitable training location in Oakville.
The event was interactive, featuring a game of table tennis facts and a demo from the team’s youngest players (9-year-olds); the evening was brought to a close with guests enjoying table tennis play at the end of the ceremony.
OCTTA is a newly formed non-profit organization co-founded by Oakville residents who are passionate about table tennis and community development. OCTTA has a vision and mission to promote the sport of Table Tennis in Canada by providing a platform to develop outstanding youth athletes and to serve the local communities.
OCTTA collaborates with Three 10 Table Tennis Club in the area of professional and competition level training. The Three 10 Table Tennis Club was established by coach Raymond Zhang, who led the Oakville’s Three10 Table Tennis team that represented Team Ontario in the 2022 Canadian National Championships.