Young Table Tennis Starlet rising in Christchurch

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Young Table Tennis Starlet rising in Christchurch

A 14-year-old Burnside High student of Polish descent is making waves amongst the ranks of New Zealand’s top table tennis competitors.

Ola Ratka of Christchurch won the New Zealand Cadet Championships in Auckland on 17 March, beating the top seeded Ruofei Rao (13) from Auckland in straight sets, 3:0. Remarkably this girl is ranked in the second place on the NZ senior ranking list and just before tournament she was selected as a one of the 4 senior woman players to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Championships in India.

Ola has been seriously involved in table tennis since she was 10 years old and has been a member of the New Zealand junior squad for more than 2 years now. She has represented the country on a few international tournaments.

Ola has been working hard, training for up to 15 hours per week under a Korean born coach, Hyo Joo Lee, now living in Christchurch. Her training was focused on building a solid foundation with the good footwork and body balance.

Recently Ola’s years of hard work started to pay off. She won her first senior title at Canterbury Open Championships and represented Canterbury as a member of the top senior woman team at New Zealand Open Championships, where she managed to beat a woman from the New Zealand senior squad.

In January Ola has qualified for prestigious tournament - Global Junior Circuit Finals in Guatemala, where she represented continent of Oceania and played against top 15 girls from all over the world, all of them 3 years older than her.

Table Tennis is one of the most popular sports all over the world, especially in Asia and Europe. We are very lucky to have here in Christchurch very good coaches who have been involved with top international players, including Korean Olympic Champion. Ola is a product of European origin and Asian style of training. So far the combination is proving to work very well.

Ola’s parents, Piotr and Dorota Ratka, came to New Zealand in 1989. Her father’s keen interest in table tennis started in Poland and he continued to play it socially in New Zealand. There is no doubt that it is her father’s enthusiasm for the sport coupled with her Korean coach’s, dedication and drive that inspired Ola to train hard and succeed.

However, support for Ola has been put to a test, as the family struggles to keep up with the hefty price tag of maintaining a rigorous training regime and competing internationally. With this year’s table tennis events staged in places as diverse as Australia, India, France, New Caledonia and Morocco, the travel budget alone could go into tens of thousands of dollars. Add to this the cost of training ($40/hr, or about $5000/year), competition entry fees (between $1,500 and $6000 per event) and you need a full-time job just to keep one young athlete in the game.

The family and Table Tennis Canterbury are currently looking for sponsorship towards Ola’s High Performance Training in Korea which is very important factor in realizing short term goals, which are: qualification for the Youth Olympics in China in 2014 and selection for New Zealand senior team for Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014. Ola has very realistic chances to achieve both goals.

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