In a positive step forward for capacity building in Oceania, an ITTF Competition Management Workshop was staged at Table Tennis Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand from 27-30 January. Tiago Viegas, the WTT Head of Feeder and Youth Series, was the expert on duty serving as the Workshop Facilitator. The workshop was delivered under the auspices of the Oceania Development Program.
The workshop participants were Ocean Belrose (Oceania Development Officer), Kameron Chan (Australia), John Cordue (New Zealand), Joh Fifita (Tonga), Stephen Gillespie (Australia), Allie Johnny (Kiribati), Shane Laugesen (New Zealand), Hongbo Liang (Oceania Development Officer), Claire Montgomery (Australia) and Larry Notte (Nauru).
Across an intense four days, the workshop covered all aspects required for competition management. Capping off the workshop was an assessment where the participants were able to test their learnings. In addition, hands-on experience was gained by the participants as they were able to assist with the venue set up for the 2026 ITTF-Oceania Cup, which immediately followed the workshop at the same venue.
At a minimum, participation at the workshop will assist with the delivery of events at a national level in the home country of each participant. For those who excelled in the workshop, it is hoped that some of them may go on to serve as competition managers at continental or international level.
The workshop aligns with the 2025-2028 ITTF-Oceania Strategic Plan’s commitment to increasing the knowledge and capability of stakeholders from member associations. ITTF-Oceania thanks ITTF for supporting the Oceania Development Program, which enables positive initiatives such as this to be undertaken.