REPORT ON THE 20TH COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2014, GLASGOW – TABLE TENNIS COMPETITION

The 20th Commonwealth Games were held in Glasgow between 23 July and 3 August 2014. There were a number of very good and positive points from the Games which overall was excellent and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were outstanding.

  1. The general feeling from all concerned with the Games was very positive. Good for Glasgow, good for Scotland, good for the players, good for the Commonwealth Games and very good for table tennis.
  1. The table tennis competition had a record entry with players from 43 countries participating:

Men’s Team28

Women’s Team22

Men’s Singles106

Women’s Singles86

Men’s Doubles51

Women’s Doubles40

Mixed Doubles90

  1. The arrangements for the show courts were very good with tiered seating behind each end of both of the show courts.
  1. The second hall also provided good playing facilities with 8 large courts and adequate tiered seating behind each court, and a good practice hall with 12 tables.
  1. The Referee and Assistant Referees did a good job in managing the competition and the overall standard of umpiring was good.
  1. The general organisation was also good with many volunteers providing valuable assistance.

The volunteers at the Games were one of the points that impressed the most, similar to London 2012.

  1. The Medal Ceremony presentations, which were standard across the sports at the Games, were sharp, efficient and well presented.
  1. The presentation of the matches on the show courts was also well done.
  1. The television coverage was excellent with both of the show courts being covered throughout each day, much of which was picked up by the rights holders, in particular the BBC coverage in the UK was very good, including through the website stream where both tables were covered continuously.
  1. The spectator attendances and appreciation of the play was very good throughout and the feedback from spectators who had attended the table tennis was also very good saying that they had enjoyed their visit to the sport.
  1. There were a number of points that were less than satisfactory and should be avoided for the Gold Coast Games and beyond. These have been detailed in the report from Chandra and the post event report from myself which was sent to the ITTF.

The individual winners in the table tennis event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were as follows:

Men’s SinglesGoldJian Zhan, Singapore

Silver GaoNing, Singapore

BronzeLiam Pitchford, England

Women’s SinglesGoldFengTianwei, Singapore

Silver YuMengyu, Singapore

BronzeYe Lin, Singapore

Men’s DoublesGoldGaoNing/Hu Le, Singapore

SilverSharath Kamal Achanta/Amalraj Anthony, India

BronzeJian Zhan/Zi Yang, Singapore

Women’s DoublesGoldFeng Tianwei/Yu Mengyu, Singapore

SilverJian Fang Lay/Miao Miao, Australia

BronzeAnqi Luo/Zhang Mo, Canada

Mixed DoublesGoldJoanna Parker/Paul Drinkhall, England

SilverTin TinHo/Liam Pitchford, England

BronzeKelly Sibley/Danny Reed, England

The medals table for the table tennis event was as follows:

Table Tennis Medal Standings

NationalGoldSilverBronzeTotal

Singapore62210

England1225

Australia0102

India0101

Malaysia0101

Alan Ransome OBE

7 April 2015