Senior
Corner & the Meiklejohn Senior ChampionshipsSenior
Corner & the Meiklejohn Senior ChampionshipsNovember/December 2004
By Olga & Stan
Kahan,
Co-Chairs, USATT Senior Committee
949-830-6699 (ph) · 949-240-7167 (fax)
This year seems to be passing by so quickly. A lot of encouraging news has been scrolling on the 2004 Senior Table Tennis screen. One of the good pieces of news from the USATT Board was a reduction of a lifetime membership to $100 for those over 70 years of age. One of the first to take advantage of this Senior Special was a California table tennis enthusiast and the treasurer of the Meiklejohn National Senior Championships, Walt Wehrli. To his delight, Walt promptly received his new lifetime membership. It expires in the year 2840! We advised Walt to be sure to get his money’s worth. He said he would. He intends to renew it at the expiration date. That’s a lot of table tennis journals for the next 800+ years, and think of all those tournaments he can enter as a lifetime member! Walt has promised to give his old journals to senior clubs in 300 years.
Is there any exciting news from the 12th World Veterans’ Championships held this June in Yokohama, Japan? Oh, yes! Our jetsetter from Springfield, Massachusetts, Lynwood Smith, playing with Kai Merimaa of Finland, came home with a gold medal and a new title, “World Over 70 Doubles Champion.”
At the same time an 80-year-old Irishman, Bertie Levinge, performed even better – returning home with two precious gold medals for singles and doubles and becoming Ireland’s first World Table Tennis Champion.
If you watched the opening ceremonies of the Athens Olympics, you might have seen a table tennis player proudly carrying his national flag. That was Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium, a finalist in men’s singles at the 1993 Worlds and the 1998 U.S. Open Men’s Singles & Doubles (with USA’s Cheng Yinghua) Champion. There are rumors that he is retiring from his beloved sport. However, we hope that when he reaches the mature age of 40, he will join us seniors in World Senior Competitions and we hope that by that time we will be running a U.S. Senior Open and Senior Top-Professional Play exhibitions, on a regular basis. This would be similar to the famous Meiklejohn National Seniors tournaments.
This year it was not an exception for the Meiklejohn National Seniors, with over $15,000 in prizes, 206 players and 32 events, June 3-6, in Laguna Woods, California. The tournament went exceptionally well thanks to its organizers, volunteers and their highly efficient teamwork. The organizers were tournament director Ray Kunze, its committee chair, Olga Kahan, and committee members Harry Bloom, Alma Beckerman (secretary), Herb Gilbert, Stan Kahan, Jack Lopez, Julius Margolis, Bill Meiklejohn (main sponsor), Walt Wehrli (treasurer), and Art Wirtschafter. At the control desk: Shonie Aki, Masaru Hashimoto, Craig Krum, Marilyn Miller, and indefatigable Julius Margolis – “a captain of the ship.” The Blue Ribbon International Umpire and Referee Tom Miller was relentlessly supervising the tournament and checking and rechecking the draws. His army of certified umpires included Linda Hsing, Wilfredo Escobar, Olga and Stan Kahan, with a group of volunteers always at hand and eager to be scorekeepers.
This time an Over 90 Singles Round Robin was completed with Harry Bloom’s undeniable victory. Even the second largest newspaper in the U.S., the Los Angeles Times, dedicated a very flattering article to the Meiklejohn Seniors and, specially, to all those players who crossed the nonagenarian threshold in excellent physical shape and ageless spirit.
A match between Lily Yip (the only woman who succeeded to reach the Over 40 Singles semifinals) and Atanda Musa was breathtaking. It was a seven-game match, with Musa winning 4-3. Lily won Hardbat, defeating Loc Bao Ngo to become the Senior Hardbat Champion. She emerged from Over 40 Women’s Singles a champion as well. It’s great, Lily – you are an inspiration to women players of all ages!
In the Senior Elites, David Zhuang demonstrated his strength over Musa, winning 3-0.
The main event – Over 40 Singles – with its lucrative monetary prizes (1st $1500; 2nd $1000; 3-4: $500; 5-8: $150) attracted a huge crowd of spectators, flocking to occupy any seat available. It turned out to be a fascinating match, which created a few “minor” problems for umpire Linda Hsing. After Musa’s exciting win over Lily in the semifinals, he was playing exceptionally well, taking the first two games from David Zhuang in the final. During the game break, David was conferring with his coach when lo and behold, the ball somehow became crushed. David had accidentally taken the ball with him. Getting a new ball, Linda had the match resume and David received a yellow card. Down 0-2, David won the third. Musa looked at the strange new ball, and lo and behold, it was transformed into a crushed ball. Out popped another yellow card, this time for Musa. The senior audience looked thoroughly confused. After a few careful words between all involved, the match resumed with its third ball. Fortunately, the ball avoided any destructive impulses and David defeated Musa, 4-2, for the Championship.
With the approach of 2005 we wish all readers a happy and victorious New Year!
Meiklejohn National Senior
Championships
Laguna Woods, CA · June 3-6,
2004
Senior Elite – Final: David Zhuang d. Atanda Musa, 8,9,9; SF: Zhuang d. Attila Malek, 4,4,-10,3; Musa d. De Tran, 8,-8,9,-9,9; QF: Zhuang d. Tung Phan, 6,8,6; Malek d. Ernest Virgo, 5,9,7; Tran d. Rudy Miranda, 6,9,5; Musa d. Lily Yip, 4,7,6.
Over 40 Singles – Final: David Zhuang d. Atanda Musa, -7,-9,4,4,7,5; SF: Zhuang d. Rudy Miranda, 3,3,3,4; Musa d. Lily Yip, -8,7,-9,7,-5,9,8; QF: Zhuang d. George Brathwaite, 5,3,-9,7; Miranda d. De Tran, 7,-8,-8,9,8; Yip d. Avishy Schmidt, 4,7,7; Musa d. Ernest Virgo, -10,4,8,6.
Over 40 Women – Final: Lily Yip d. Hong Zhao, 3,7,-6,8.
Over 50 – Final: Attila Malek d. Lim Ming Chui, -8,7,2,5; SF: Malek d. Stanley Tang, 5,-5,9,8; Chui d. Changping Duan, -9,-8,7,8,7.
Over 50 Women – Final: Bella Livshin d. Charlene Liu, 6,7,8; SF: Livshin d. Donna Sakai, 5,4,7; Liu – Bye.
Over 60 – Final: George Brathwaite d. Howard Grossman, -10,-11,9,4,9; SF: Brathwaite d. Nick Mintsiveris, 8,9,4; Grossman d. Houshang Bozorgzadeh, 6,7,6.
Over 60 Women – Final: Pui Har Chan So d. Su Chen Liu, 0,5,8; SF: So d. Kuniko Jessup, 5,2,5; Liu d. Harriet Quon, 5,0,0.
Over 70 – Final: Nick Mintsiveris d. Chason Koh, 6,7,8; SF: Mintsiveris d. Si Wasserman, 6,8,8; Koh d. Tony Fischer, 2,2,2.
Over 75 – Final: Ivan Slade d. Byng Forsberg, 5,4,-8,5; SF: Slade d. Grant Misbach, -7,5,10,6; Forsberg d. Si Wasserman, 4,-7,3,3.
Over 75 Doubles: Lee/Opperman d. Forsberg/Smyth, 7,-7,-8,6,7.
Over 80 – Final: Ivan Slade d. Si Wasserman, -7,5,-10,7,6; SF: Slade d. Julius Margolis, 7,2,2; Wasserman d. Richard Lee, 8,-8,6,-4,6.
Over 90 RR: 1st Harry Bloom, 2-0; 2nd Romo Chernoff, 1-1; 3rd Frank Buchanan, 0-2.
Hardbat – Final: Lily Yip d. Loc Ngo, 11,12; SF: Yip d. James Therriault, -9,11,8; Ngo d. Lim Ming Chui, -18,17,16.
U2400 – Final: Ernest Virgo d. Loc Bao Ngo, -9,4,10,-9,10; SF: Virgo d. Lon Dean, 8,9,7; Ngo d. Jun Fernando Valencia, 7,-3,7,8.
U2300: Ramin Samari d. Avishy Schmidt, def.
U2050: Howard Grossman d. Renjie Liu, -4,10,-13,6,7.
U1900: Chia Wu d. Allen Silberman, 6,-6,8,10.
U1800: Alexander Salcido d. Tony Rodriguez, -6,5,-9,5,5.
U1600: Leszek Kasowski d. Bob Chew, 9,6,-11,2.
U1450: Scott Roberts d. Ting Ning Cheung, 10,9,6.
U1300: Cuong Chi Lam d. Asadur Chilingirian, -5,9,5,-2,9.
U1200: Ming Chen d. Minh Lu, 5,5,-8,9.
U1100: Dana Cheng d. Steve Cookson, 10,9,8.
Draw Doubles: Atanda Musa/Robert Johnson d. George Brathwaite/Louis Montes, 9,12,-7,2.
U4800 Doubles: Rudy Miranda/Lily Yip d. Atanda Musa/Ajayi Ohore.
U4500 Doubles: Tung Phan/James Therriault d. Lim Ming Chui/Hank McCoullum, 5,-8,-10,10,9.
U4200 Doubles: Ngo/Salcido d. Schmidt/Chang, 4,-9,9,7.
U3400 Doubles: Tran/Yamashita d. Chua/Vu, 5,10,8.
U2800 Doubles: Harriet Quon/Viktor Troppmann d. Giron/Vasquez, 5,5,-7,-7,4.
U2300 Doubles: Ming Chen/Dana Cheng d. Edward Nakanishi/Pham, -7,7,9,10.
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