(by Steve Hopkins)
The US National Table Tennis Championships is in the books. One of America’s premiere events concluded over the holiday weekend in Ontario, California. Kanak Jha topped Nandan Naresh in the Men’s Singles final. Sally Moyland won her first Women’s title with Amy Wang finishing second. The Men’s Doubles title went to Nikhil Kuma and Sid Naresh, the Women’s Doubles title went to Amy Wang and Abigail Yu, and Mixed Doubles was won by Nikhil Kumar and Sally Moyland.
Sally Moyland had an amazing tournament – not just winning Women’s Singles but also winning U21 Women’s Singles, winning U19 Girls’ Singles, winning Mixed Doubles, and finishing second (with Jessica Reyes-Lai) in Women’s Doubles. Nandan Naresh also had a great tournament – adding a win in U21 Men’s Singles to second place finishes in Men’s Singles, U19 Singles, and Men’s Doubles. Nandan also made Semifinal appearances with his third place doubles awards in both Mixed Doubles (with Tiffany Ke) and U19 Boys (with Anav Gupta).
The US Nationals is more than just the featured events, its eight hundred and fifty players competing in 113 events. In addition to the premier events (Hsing Family Foundation Men’s Singles, Hsing Family Foundation Women’s Singles, Hsing Family Foundation U-21 Men’s Singles, and Hsing Family Foundation U-21 Women’s Singles) there were also 10 Boys and Girls Singles Events, an additional 17 events for older participants with age groupings of 30& Over up to 85 & Over, 40 Doubles Events, Rating Events, a series of Wasserman Classic Events, a Parkinson event and 7 Para events.
Lily Yip won singles events in Women’s O50 and O60, and added 5 doubles titles O40, O50, and O60 Women’s (all with Patty Martinez-Wasserman), and O40 Mixed (with Jimmy Butler), and O50 Mixed (with Martin Gohr). Patty Martinez-Wasserman won four doubles titles and added two seconds and a third. Jimmy Butler won six events – taking O50 Singles, Hardbat Singles, Sandpaper Singles, and three doubles titles (O40 Men, O40 Mixed, and O50 Men). The May family (father Pete and son Derek) left with 10 medals – Derek won two doubles events (O40 and O50) along with a second in Men’s O40 Singles and a third in Men’s O50 Singles and a third in O50 Mixed and Pete won O80 Men’s, finished third in U1700 Sandpaper, and added a second in O80 Men’s Doubles and a third in O75 Men’s Doubles. Yuxiang Li won five events (and also had two seconds and a third – winning Singles events in O60, O65, and O70 and also winning O60 Men’s Doubles, and O70 Mixed Doubles.
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