Asda Athletes

Having finished the sponsored walk at 1am I had a few hours sleep and went into the Falkirk store on Saturday morning to help raise more funds. Cath had organised bag packers however I helped promote ‘Tickled Pink’ bingo cards, dabbers and badges. The prizes were really good and we were lucky enough to have someone who won something in the store. I really enjoyed meeting all the different people who gave donations for the charity and it was really humbling when some of them shared their own personal stories of how Cancer had effected their lives or that of friends and family. This is when you realise how important these charities are and the difference that they make to peoples lives.

It’s the start of the Scottish Table Tennis season and I have my first Edinburgh league match this week so fingers crossed the team does well as it would be nice to win the league again. However that’s a long way off. I will keep you up to date with how things are progressing in the meantime its back to training and homework!!!

On Friday night I completed the ‘Moonlight Sponsored Walk’ with Asda colleagues and friends from the Falkirk store. We walked 10 miles starting at 10 pm at the store and finished around 1am on Saturday morning having completed a circuit around the Falkirk area. The sponsored walk was in aid of ‘Tickled Pink’ the Asda nominated charity. It was great fun to be part of it and I got to meet other Asda colleagues as well as supporting Cath Stewart, Asda Community Colleague to raise valuable funds for this fantastic charity. Most of the people who completed the walk were women who were dressed up in various pink outfits from pink ‘to-tos, to pink feather boas, hats and t-shirts. My mum tried to get me to wear a ‘to-to’ but I managed to get away with a pink t-shirt!!! The photographs show you some of the walkers and also some of the fun that we had on the night. Fingers crossed that it’s raised lots of money!

I have just recently played in the European Youth Championships in Vienna, Austria.

The venue was the Werner Schlager Academy which is specifically built for table tennis. It was probably the best venue I have ever been to too play table tennis. The competition was very hard as the best countries in Europe were competing. Even though I got off to a slow start, as the 10 day competition progressed I began to flourish and notably knocked out one of the top Slovakian players in the individual event. I managed to qualify for the main draw and got to the last 128 which was a great achievement for me. I was also the only Scottish junior player to get this far in the competition.

This weekend sees the start of the new table tennis season. The 1st tournament is in Liverpool and this is a Grand Prix tournament. In it I will be playing two banded events, under 21’s event and doubles with my dad. I am looking forward to it and I am really excited about playing with my dad. Hopefully I will do well and get off to a go start for the season.

I have recently returned from playing in the British Secondary Schools Table Tennis Championships in Guernsay. This event sees teams from Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man and Guernsey. There are 2 events that are played over the 3 days – Team event which is made up of 2 players and an individual event. I competed at under 16 level. The team event was quite disappointing as my partner and I only achieved 6th place. However in the individual event I managed to achieve a bronze medal which was an excellent achievement for me as I was only seeded to reach the quarter finals. So finishing up in the top 4 was really good. On the whole though it was a fun weekend with some highs and some lows.

On Thursday I leave to travel to Austria for 10 days and will be representing Scotland at the European Youths Championships in Vienna which is at under 18 level. Over the ten days I will compete in the team event with another 2 scottish players, the individuals, doubles and mixed doubles events. The best players in Europe attend this prestigious tournament and it will be hard and challenging as I will be playing against players who are older than me as this is my 1st year as a Junior. I have trained hard for this competition and am really looking forward to gaining valuable experience.

I have just met up with Cath Stewart who is the Asda Community Coordinator for Falkirk. We had a great chat which stirred up some really good ideas on ways that I can help support her with the work that she currently carries out with some local primary schools. She has been asked to support these schools with sports activities in the lead up to the Olympics and I am waiting now to find out what I can do to help her. I hope to meet up with her again after I finish my exams at the end of May to finalise details.

Last weekend I attended the Sainsbury’s 2012 School Games in London. The table tennis event was held in the Excel Area which will host the Olympic event in August, so it was great to be able to play at the venue. I had a good competition winning most of my games. As a team we ended up in 4th position just missing out on the bronze medal. Overall I had hoped that we could have done better but on the whole it was a great experience meeting other table tennis players from the other countries and regions. I also got the opportunity to watch some of the other sports and made some new friends.

I am now in the middle of my Standard Grade exams so any free time that I have is being spent on training as my next competition is the Senior British Secondary Schools Championships in Guernsey on the 22nd – 24th of June.