2016 All America Over 40 Tour

May 12, 2016

2016 All America Over 40 Tour – Rosemead Over 40 Table Tennis Tournament
Courtesy of USA Table Tennis
By Kevin Yu & Gail Kendall

MAY 10, 2016 – Wow – have you ever seen a group of over-40 adults move so fast in such a full day of matches! Eight round robin events: two doubles events and six singles events, with two players (or two doubles teams) advancing in each round robin!

Table tennis is all about getting to the right place at the right time and our athletes definitely found the right place at the right time in Rosemead, California, on April 24th. This year’s first California stop on the USATT All-America Over-40 Table Tennis Tour had more than 50 athletes participating, ranging from contenders who have barely reached 40 years of age to a senior contender who is 87 years old! It was a fierce day of competition with players coming from as far away as New York and as close as Rosemead, interrupted only briefly for the excellent pizza provided at lunchtime.

The tournament was hosted in the California Table Tennis Club, located in Rosemead, California. It was an event well-organized by World Champion and Head Coach of California Table Tennis Club, Gao Jun, and well-managed by Craig Krum as tournament staff. While Gao Jun focuses her club on training the next youth US Olympian, she has ensured that the Club is also focused on organizing excellent national-level table tennis tournaments for the adult community.

Congratulations are extended to everyone who participated in this wonderful event. Well-earned recognition goes to all of the following winners (and especially to the winner of the Under 1650 RR: 76-year-old Seng Der Lee!):

Over 40 RR – First Place: Vahid Mosaferi; Second Place: Avishy Schmidt
Over 50 RR – First Place: Avishy Schmidt; Second Place: Li Chen
Under 3700 Doubles RR – First Place: Lan Voung / Lin Guan; Second Place: Tiejun Chen / Kai Lee
Under 3500 Doubles RR – First Place: Joey Kuok / Paul Lam; Second Place: Vahid Mosaferi / Victor Grubsky
Under 2150 RR – First Place: Joey Kuok; Second Place: Edwin Amaya
Under 1900 RR – First Place: Edwin Amaya; Second Place: Jiho Jung
Under 1650 RR – First Place: Seng Der Lee; Second Place: Kai Lee
Under 1450 RR – First Place: Yanhua Xu; Second Place: William Lin

Please join the Over-40 Tour excitement and register by May 23, 2016, for the next Over-40 Tour tournament, the Meiklejohn North American Seniors Open. We hope to see you in Laguna Woods, California, from June 2nd to June 5th! For more information, please visit www.usatt-over-40-tours.org.