WEATHER WILL NOT STOP TOURNAMENT

HOMETOWN pride will be burning like never before for Townsville’s top table tennis players.

Townsville Table Tennis is hosting the Queensland Closed Championships starting on Thursday after a major recovery effort restored power and facilities just in time for the club’s big event.

More than 50 of Australia’s best table tennis players will converge on Townsville for the five-day champion- ships featuring singles, doubles and team competitions.

Visitors are heavily favoured to win all major titles, but locals are determined to do their city proud.

“It’s a pretty full-on tournament, there’s plenty of topranked players who will be very hard to beat,” Townsville Table Tennis president Brendan Gaeta said.

“These are all national players, and there’s a couple of them who will very likely go through the tournament undefeated.

“But our players have plenty of experience as well, and they want to do themselves and the community proud.”

The championships were in danger of being postponed or moved to Brisbane as Townsville was hit by disastrous flooding. The Townsville Table Tennis centre along Charters Towers Rd suffered equipment damage and loss of power.

Only a mammoth recovery effort allowed the centre to restore power on Sunday, giving the club just enough time to prepare.

“We were very fortunate, and when you drive along Charters Towers Rd you see a lot of businesses still without power,” Gaeta said.

“The Ergon team and council worked hard for us with the specific goal of being able to host the championships.

“Volunteers have also been working around the clock to make it happen.

“We have the power back, which is amazing, and now we have to do a bit more work to get everything ready.”

Australia’s top-tanked female player Minhyung Jee will be the overwhelming favourite in the female singles, and Chilean international Bruno Levi – a regular competitor at Townsville competitions – will enter the men’s singles as Australia’s fourthranked player.

Australian youth Olympian Ben Gould will also be among the favourites.

Games start Thursday from 9am. Entry is free.

Picture: EVAN MORGAN READY: Caitlin Woods, 15, is playing in the Queensland Closed Table Tennis Championships in Townsville. The event was nearly cancelled because of the flood.

Picture: EVAN MORGAN LOCAL PRIDE: Olav Dahl, Caitlin Woods and Terry Morato are ready for the state table tennis titles in Townsville later this week.