Guernsey plays host to best juniors in Europe

THE best junior table tennis players in Europe are in the island this week. For the first time, the Guernsey Table Tennis Centre is hosting the EuroKids Training Camp.

And 28 of the top under-13 boys and girls from 13 different countries around the continent are being put through their paces by leading European Table Tennis Union coach Jarek Kolodziejcjk.

The camp takes place two or three times a year.

'Obviously as an association we are thrilled to have been allowed to host this training camp and hopefully we'll be able to do another one,' said Guernsey Table Tennis Association president Derek Webb.

'It also gives our kids an opportunity to knock up with some of the best in Europe.'

The four Guernsey players involved in the camp are Rachel Harm, Kate Stubbington and brothers Joshua and Lawrence Stacey.

Every country, which includes Portugal, Serbia, Romania and Israel, has sent one boy, one girl and a coach, who assists Kolodziejcjk in the training sessions.

They do not get much better than the Polish representative, who is based in Austria as one of their national coaches.

'He introduces new things that we can do with our children,' said Guernsey's development coach, Becks O'Keefe.

'He sees things that maybe I haven't spotted in my sessions.

All the children at the camp are staying next door to the table tennis centre in the Hougue du Pommier.

Every day this week they are getting up at 7.15am and go for a 10 minute run and then a stretch before breakfast.

From 9.30am until noon they have their first training session of the day.

Then they have another two sessions, finishing at 9pm.

The ETTU youth development manager, Zita Pidl, who is overseeing the week, said this was the eighth time that the camp had been held and she was delighted to see it in Guernsey for the first time.

'It's very lovely how things are managed here,' said the Hungarian.

Another top official over this week is Rudolf Sporrer who is the general secretary of the Austrian Table Tennis Association.

For a country with a population of just eight million, Austria has had some great success on the world stage.

In 2003 they had the world champion in Werner Schlager and in recent years have had four European champions.

Sporrer is running a couple of seminars with the coaches and at one yesterday he spoke about the Austrian system.

He has been impressed with what he has seen in Guernsey and with the camp.

'I didn't know too much about Guernsey table tennis but I'm very impressed with the facilities and conditions - they are to a top European standard,' he said.

'Kolodziejcjk is a big part of this camp. He's probably one of the best junior coaches in the world.'

Sporrer is also the chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation's rules committee.

The game has undergone some big changes in the last 10 years to make it more exciting with longer rallies.

Sporrer has been behind these changes, which include shortening games from 21 points to 11, expanding the radius of the balls from 38 to 40mm and not allowing players to hide the ball when they are serving.

Another rule that he is keen to see introduced is heightening the net by five to 15mm.

'Our research has suggested that it would create longer rallies,' he said.

'It will make the sport more attractive by making longer rallies. Our changes have been extremely successful.'

At the end of the week, the centre is also hosting the inaugural Guernsey Mini-Champs Challenge that will see the players from the training camp battle it out.

The tournament takes place on Saturday and Sunday.

'It's a good idea and we're supporting it,' said Pidl.