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

Age 80+ Benjamin Read – Gold Age 75+ Suresh Kanekar – Gold Hansen Djavaherian – Silver Age 70+ Bill Ukapatayasakul – Gold John Anderson – Silver Age 65+ Janusz Supernak – Gold Peter Margarita – Silver Derrick Stockhausen – Bronze Age 60+ Kamran Azimzadeh – Gold Shelley Hardy – Silver Age 55+ Alla Rabinovich – Gold Leo Soldatenkov – Silver Age 50+ Peter Molinar – Gold Mixed Doubles Bill Ukapatayasakul and Shelley Hardy – Gold Peter Molinar and Alla Rabinovich – Silver Doubles Bill Ukapatayasakul and Kamran Azimzadeh – Gold Benjamin Read and James Kahn – Silver

Here is a press release written for our club about us competing in the 2013 Friendship  Games versus the Baja, Mexico Club. To view or download it, click here.

Congratulations to Earl Alto for winning the Under 2400 event at the 2012 U.S. National Championships!

Hi All, I think our first effort at doubles night went extremely well..While it might have looked like herding cats, many exciting and competitive matches took place.  We had 14 teams, some left early, some came late.  All in all the teams were fairly well balanced.  Earl and Ron played and we had a lower division of matches.  The excessively lavish prize money has yet to be distributed..  The winners for the night appear to be Team James Neilsen and Abner as well as Team Borko and Bob Wilson.  Runners up were Team Joey Valenzuela and Mark Tupas followed closely by Team James Kahn and Eddie Choe. I thank everyone for participating including those I had to twist arms to enter.  If you enjoyed it, we will continue it. Thanks, James Kahn

Open RR 1st Marko Prce 2nd Vahid Mosaferi 3rd David Umel 3rd Earl Alto U17 RR 1st Erick Shahnazari 2nd Amanda Malek O40 RR 1st Robert Shahhnazari 2nd Christian Lillieroos 3rd/4th Stanley Tang 3rd/4th Alireza Hejazi O60 RR 1st Hiro Moriyasu 2nd Bill Ukaapatayasakul 3rd Mark Adelman 3rd Phil Van De Wiele U900 RR 1st Royce Stanfill 2nd Fred Pearson U1100 RR 1st Royce Stanfill 2nd Fred Pearson 3rd Monica Sims U1500 RR 1st Dylan Chang 2nd Angel Luo 3rd Janusz Supernak U1900 RR 1st Erick Shahnazari 2nd Hiro Moriyasu 3rd Amanda Malek 3rd Mark Gleicher  

U15 RR 1st Patrick Soto 2nd Ted Li O50 RR 1st Christian Lillieroos 2nd Michael Lardon 3rd Philip Van De Wiele 3rd Naqvi Syed Amjad U3400 Dbls 1st Peter Sanidad/Emmanuel Ong 2nd James Kahn/Nar Fahlstrom 3rd Danny Campbell/Ray Nanos 3rd Dylan Chang/Bill Chang U1300 RR 1st Dik Cheung 2nd Kelly Lam 3rd Rich Turek 4th Morton Gorel U2100 RR 1st Paul Wessel 2nd Thong Nguyen 3rd Vo Quang 3rd Kiet Tran U1700 RR 1st Kazem Behnam 2nd Dylan Chang 3rd Don Hoang 3rd Angel Luo Open Doubles 1st Marko Prce/Brana Vlasic 2nd David Umel/Earl Alto 3rd Peter Sanidad/Emmanuel Jong 3rd Veronica Chen/Derrick Cone