Scotland primary school team & coaches, Jersey 2024
Article by Donald Pirie
Hot on the heels of the Scottish senior schools event, the UK championships for the Primary schools took place in Jersey over the weekend of 5-7 April. ASV TT Academy and Aberdeen were represented by Kiishi Adekola (Robert Gordons School) in the girls Scottish team, and Dean Robertson (Aberdeen Grammar School) in the boys Scottish Team. Both Kiishi & Dean entered the event as the Scottish No.1 player in their respective teams.
The UK championships is a 7-nation event, with teams from England, Ireland & Wales joining Scotland, and teams from the islands of Guernsey & Isle of Man, as well as hosts Jersey. The event sees a team event take place over the Friday & Saturday, with the players taking on a singles event on the Sunday.
Both Boys & Girls teams started well on Friday, with mirrored fixtures, both teams playing against Guernsey & Jersey. Both teams took 2 wins from 2, and Kiishi & Dean both remained unbeaten that day.
Matches on Saturday were going to be more challenging, but the Girls team, and Kiishi, remained unbeaten dispatching both Wales and Ireland comfortably. The boys team overcame Wales 8-2, but had a tougher match against Ireland, drawing 5-5. The boys went onto dispatch Jersey with ease and had the favourites England left to play. This was always going to be a big ask, but the boys performed admirably, Dean had a comfortable win against the England No.2 player, but couldn't manage to defeat the Top seed, however a narrow defeat to England made sure the Scottish Boys team took a Silver Medal at the event.
Dean Robertson (Aberdeen Grammar School)
The girls team went in against England with both teams being undefeated at the event, so it was a winner takes all match. Kiishi had a great match against the English No.1, but went down 13-11, 12-10, 11-5, and although was a 0-3 loss, it could easily have gone the other way. Like the boys, ultimately the Scottish Girls team ended with a Silver Medal at the UK Champs.
Kiishi Adekola (Robert Gordons School)
The singles on the Sunday was going to make for an interesting event, and both Kiishi & Dean came through the groups and first round knockout stages with relative ease. Once again Kiishi came up against the English No.1 player, and despite another close encounter, Kiishi went out at the QF stage.
Over in the boys’ singles, Dean came up against his Scottish teammate from Elgin, Alexander Stepney. The boys know each other well, and Dean had managed a 3-1 win in the Scottish championships final earlier in the year. Another great match from the Scottish boys took place, but this time around the spoils went to Alexander, taking the match 3-2 and progressing through to the semi-final, which meant Dean went out at the QF stage.
Overall a good day for Kiishi & Dean, leading their respective Scottish teams to a UK Silver medal.
ASV TT Academy will have a number of players travelling to the UK Senior Schools championships in June, with a similar format, so look out for more success there.
The European Youth Championships also take place in Sweden from 12-21 July this year. Selections from Table Tennis Scotland show that 4-players from the ASV TT Academy have been selected to represent Scotland at the event:
- Harry Blackhall (Kemnay), U19 boys
- Jakub Krzyzostaniak (St. Machar Academy), U15 boys
- Maja Wojcicka (Turriff Academy), U15 girls
- Kiishi Adekola (Robert Gordons School), U15 girls
Fantastic stuff for the players involved, and the most players the ASV TT Academy have had selected in any one year for the European youths. There are large costs involved for the players in question, and suggestions for funding possibilities are always welcome.
