RISING Colebridge Table Tennis Club star Charlotte LokChing Wong has qualified to represent Warwickshire at the 48th Butterfly Schools’ Individual Table Tennis Championships National Finals for the second year in a row.
Charlotte, aged 10, attends Widney Junior School in Solihull and will take on some of the best young players in the country at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton on Saturday, April 22 later this year.
The youngster earned her place at the event after battling through county qualifying stages at Meon Vale Leisure Centre in Stratford as she beat three other girls in a round-robin competition.
Charlotte said: “I am really looking forward to playing in the National Schools Individual Finals in April. I am practising regularly, and am hoping to be more successful than my fifth-place finish last season.”
She trains four times a week at Colebridge Table Tennis Club and represents the club in the National Cadet League.
And Charlotte has also represented the Warwickshire County Cadet second team in the English County Championships this season.
More than 350 players, representing 50 counties, will gather for the National Finals, which is the biggest one-day table tennis competition in the country.
Several stars of the sport, including Olympians Liam Pitchford, Paul Drinkhall, Sam Walker and Tom Jarvis and Commonwealth Games medallists Tin Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos, competed at this event during their school years.
Competitions are held at under-11, 13, 16 and 19 levels for both boys and girls. All primary and secondary schools are eligible to enter players in the county rounds in order to qualify for these national finals.
Following these championships, the English Schools’ Table Tennis Committee will select representative teams to play in the Senior Schools International to be held in June 2023 with teams from England, Guernsey, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales all competing.
