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Talent - a-plenty
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"Talent - a-plenty"
The latest in a long line of talented table tennis players from New Zealand is Ruofei Rao (Remuera, Auckland). Ruofei has been selected from a total of 169 applicants worldwide for the 2010 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Hopes Team - Girls (Under 12). Ruofei will join Marie Migot (France), Insana Makhuari (Latvia), Neridee Nino (Venezuela), and Ham Mi Jeong (Korea) to compete in Korea and France.
Selection was based on a variety of criteria including: world wide representation, technical tests, response to training sessions, a range of tasks and the qualities shown at "Try-Out" meetings, one of which was hosted by the Auckland Table Tennis Association during April 2010.
The ITTF World Hopes Team is an integral part of the ITTF´s junior development programme to identify talented juniors who are demonstrating the ability to compete at the highest level of the sport with the aspirations of one day becoming World and Olympic champions. As Mikael Andersson (ITTF Education and Training Director) says "we (ITTF) nowhave the fundamental pieces in placeto run a world-wide talent identification programme clearlyhighlightingthe perfect blend of excellence and pure development aspects."
Ruofei is a product of the hugely successful high performance programme conducted by the Auckland Table Tennis Association - a programme that has delivered excellent young players like Phillip Xiao (selected in the New Zealand Men´s Team to compete at the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Russia); Kevin Wu and Julia Wu (qualified for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore); Roger Rao and Jennifer Tseng (selected as Oceania Team members to compete at the International Cadet Challenge in India).
These, and many other, talented young New Zealand table tennis players spend many hours training and competing overseas to improve their game always in the hope that one day they will achieve the pinnacle in their sport - Olympic representation.
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