Tonight I watched 8 and 1/2 year old
Teddy Li mow down another group of players from 1850 to 1670 rating. Last week he beat a group of players 1550 to 1730. I have been watching Teddy play since his eye balls could barely see the top of the table. Seeing him develop has been absolutely amazing. We are witnessing a force of nature that is quite rare. I only hope his top is not achieved until he is the U.S. champion. Spend some time to observe this little genius. It is a treat.
James Kahn
Just in case you missed this video on CBS 8 News, here is it!
San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com
To All Club Members,
The Board is happy to announce 4 new Board members who were elected for 2014. They are
John Anderson, Bob Koch, Benham Kazemi and Peter Sanidad. They will join Kiet Tran, Mark Adelman and me James Kahn.
I want to thank Suresh for spending the week at the club collecting votes. There are many thankless tasks and we appreciate everybody’s contributions.
Finally, we have received our purchase of 124 high quality table tennis shirts and once we get them printed with the club’s logo, we will offer them for sale at $20 (our cost).
We have been in touch with the family of Fred Borges and as per his wishes there will be no service of any kind. Thank you for your concern.
SDTTA Board
We will have four candidates on the ballot:
Fortunately, just enough.
Regards,
Phil Van De Wiele
SDTTA BOARD VOTING HOURS
Friday 29 Nov. 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Saturday 30 Nov. 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sunday 1 Dec. Noon – 4:00 pm
Monday 2 Dec. 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Tuesday 3 Dec. 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
ELECTION DAY Thursday 5 Dec. 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
At 7pm we’ll count the votes and announce the winners.
It is with great regret and sadness that I have to report that Fred Borges passed away on this past Friday. Fred was a brilliant teacher and a top notch table tennis player in his day. I don’t have any details at this point but as soon as we do I plan to post it on the website.
Mark Adelman
The second annual Neil Smyth 4 star Tournament brought an extremely talented collection of players to San Diego. The premier player was Chinese National B Team member and current ICC coach, Xin Zhou. His off the charts skills and nonchalance were demonstrated in warm ups where he could paint every corner of the table at a flick of the wrist. His curling loops turned so fast a player had to dive to retrieve them. The almost same motion a second later would go straight down the line.
The most compelling match of the tournament, that captured the largest crowd, was the semi-final between U.S. Champion Timothy Wang and former Chinese National Team member Xiang Jing Zhang. Zhang cruised to a 3-0 lead in the best of seven before losing focus and perhaps determination as he allowed Timothy to crawl back into the game. Surprisingly, the U.S. champ elevated his game and managed to tie up the match at 3-all. Perhaps Wang was helped by skillful coaching by ICC teammate and number one Xin Zhou. Still it looked like number two of China Mr. Zhang would prevail in the ultimate game leading 9-4 in the seventh. He went for a crowd pleasing sensational shot that just missed and opened the door for Timothy. Suddenly 10-10 occurred and before you could blink a shocking 12-10 victory was achieved by the U.S. champ, moving him into the finals against his coach and ICC teammate Xin Zhou.
The finals, regrettably, among friends lacked the drama and Zhou cruised easily. One still wonders who on this continent would push Zhou into his 4th gear. That is a match I am waiting to see.
Besides the finals, the stadium room filled with tremendous matches everywhere as the top Western players converged on San Diego.
We will continue to expand this event in future years and hope to capture more of our National players to visit San Diego.
James Kahn, President – San Diego Table Tennis
