(by Aditya Sareen)

I am so glad to share an overview of my performance at the Australian National 2023 Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney Australia from July 2nd to 9th, 2023. Most importantly, I am very grateful to my family, coaches (Cory Eider and Ying Peng), my sponsors (Bowmar Sports and Ping Pod), my practice partners and all my Table Tennis friends for helping and supporting me to perform well for 8 days packed with Table Tennis in Down Under.

My parents accompanied me to this very important tournament. I entered in 13 events: Men’s Team Championships, Men’s Open, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Under 21 Youth Singles, Under 21 Youth Doubles, Under 21 Youth Mixed Doubles, Under 19 Mixed Doubles, Under 17 Boys Singles, Under 17 Boys Doubles, Under 17 Mixed Doubles.

This tournament was the ultimate test of my stamina and consistency. I ended up playing more than 70 matches over eight days. The tournament had very high caliber players and some with top 100 ITTF men’s ranking.

The championships started with team events. Even though my team (Victoria B) finished with a bronze medal in the Men’s Team Championships, I finished unbeaten and ended up beating most of the top ranked Australian players.

I ended up winning 12 medals in the National Championships, this included 6 Golds, 4 Silvers and 2 Bronze. I was also awarded the best player awards in Under 21 Youth, Under 17 Boys, Under 15 Boys and “Michael Szabados Award” for Australian Junior Player of the Year 2023. This rare award was presented taking into consideration my international performance in the WTT events and the last Youth World Championships where for the first time in history Australia finished with a silver medal.

Most importantly, I ended up with a Silver medal in the Men’s Open event and lost to China’s XuQi Lin who has made Australia his new home. Despite the loss, I learnt so much from this final and was very happy to play against a much better and senior player. I was exhausted by the end of this tournament and my last match was the Under 15 Boys singles finals where my body started to fall apart. However, I ended up winning this event with sheer motivation Under 15 Boys Singles and Under 15 Boys Doubles.

A sincere thanks to my coach Cory Eider who watched me play live until 6 am US time during the Men’s Open event and helped me prepare before all big matches. Without his oversight and guidance this was not possible.

Once again, I am extremely thankful to my family, my coaches, my sponsors and all my friends for helping me deliver this unbelievable result.

Thank you and the journey continues.