Tahiti wins gold in table tennis team's event

By Talaia Mika 12 July 2019, 2:00PM

Tahiti has won a gold medal in the table tennis team event, defeating New Caledonia for the top honours.

New Caledonia took silver and Fiji settled for bronze at the end of the competition in that category which were held at the Lotopa Harvest Center.

The other participating countries were Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, Tuvalu, Palau and Papua New Guinea. 

Tahiti coach Alize Belrose told the Samoa Observer that their efforts finally paid off with the gold medal win after three days of competition.

"All our efforts have been paid off and especially since most of our young players have just entered the picture so it's really unexpected and at the same time exciting and we're really proud," he said.

Acknowledging the support of his whole team, Alize said their mostly young players had to put up with the training and the experiences.

Their 23-year-old player Kenji Hotan was singled out by the coach with Alize crediting him for the progress they made during the competition right up to the medal playoffs. 

Kenji is the youngest team player in Tahiti's table tennis national team and this is his first time to play for Tahiti in the Pacific Games.

Speaking to this newspaper, he said he was proud and stoked with the results of the competition going their way. 

By Talaia Mika 12 July 2019, 2:00PM

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