Youngster on a roll and off to Poland
Schoolgirl heads to World Cadet Challenge
One of Northland’s brightest table tennis stars, Takaimaania NgataHenare, will be flying the New Zealand flag when she travels to Poland in October for the World Cadet Challenge competition.
It was announced last month that Ngata-Henare, 13, would be one of four girls to travel with another four boys from Oceania to compete at the world under-15 tournament in Cetniewo from October 23-31, organised by the International Table Tennis Federation
(ITTF).
Ngata-Henare’s recent results back up her selection as she had earned 11 top-three finishes from her past four tournaments in just a month.
From August 7-10,
Adam Pearse
Ngata-Henare travelled to Nuku’alofa, Tonga where she played in the ITTF Oceania Junior Championships. The young Northlander earned an impressive three silvers in the under15 teams division, under-15 girls’ doubles and the under-15 girls’ individual, as well as a bronze in the under-15 mixed doubles.
Just six days later in Invercargill, Ngata-Henare was competing in the South Island Individual Championships from August 16-18. Her results showed her incredible promise as she won the under-13 girls’ singles and doubles, as well as the under-15 girls’ singles titles. Her golds were complemented by a silver in the under-21 women’s singles and a third-place finish in the women’s open singles, all as a player with much less experience than most in the under-21 and open divisions.
That was followed by the Auckland Open on August 24-25, where Ngata-Henare finished second in the under-18 women’s doubles while reaching the semifinal of the under-15 and under-18 girls’ singles divisions.
She rounded out a hectic month with a second-place finish in the under-15 girls’ singles at the New Zealand secondary school championships in early September, losing to New Zealand’s ninth-ranked player of that age.
All of the result have given her a world ranking of 71 for under-15 girls.
As far as Ngata-Henare is concerned, there is more work to be done.
“[The results] are not too bad but I feel like I can push myself harder to get just a little bit better,” she said.
“I’ve been happy with under-18 games lately and my under-15 games, I’ve only lost by two points in some games so it’s been pretty close.”
Before the 13-year-old travelled to Poland, she would have a week of preparation and training in Melbourne from October 16-21. While she was excited at the opportunity of an international competition, Ngata-Henare understood the changes she would need to make to succeed.
“When I’m in Poland I just want to show everybody what I have in store, what I can do and to really show my true gameplay and potential.
“I think I’ve got a lot of my shots down but just the fact that I might need to be able to last longer in the tournament because it is really long.”