Commonwealth Table Tennis
Championships 2009

The 18th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships was held in Glasgow, Scotland between 19th -25th of May.  There were over 16 Commonwealth countries competing in teams and individual events. 
 The New Zealand women's team was comprised of Mr Han (Coach - Canterbury) Sun Yang (Canterbury), Michelle McCarthy (Waikato), Angie Guo (Auckland) and I.  This was my first time representing New Zealand women’s team at these championships.  Previously I had represented New Zealand at the World Championships 2006 in Germany and the World University Games 2007 in Thailand. 

At first I was a little bit nervous playing my matches as I had never seen the other players before and I wanted to do well for the team and the country.  Soon I had settled into the tournament mode and I was able to play some of my best table tennis.

Ireland and Wales to finish in the top 8 position. The medals went to high ranked countries, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Australia.   During the teams event we competed against Singapore and England on the show tables where the matches were streamed live over the internet for people to watch.
In the Singles event I had good wins over players from Wales and Scotland and in the knock-out stage I lost 4-1 to a Singapore player who is ranked 30 in the world, she was the eventual silver medalist in the women’s singles. 
It was great to be able to watch players from other countries compete, especially Singapore players where the women's team won a Silver medal at the 2008 Beijin Olympics. 
After the competition we had a chance to go shopping and have a look around the city, it was also my first time being in Scotland,  I enjoyed visiting the Cathedral and it was interesting being inside the oldest house in Glasgow.  Overall I had an amazing experience playing for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Champs.

 Sarah Ho
I would like to thank the following for their support:  Murray Finch, Tom Liu, Richard Lee, Waikato Table Tennis, TIBHAR, Waikato University Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship, Scottwood Trust, Prime Ministers Scholarship