EuroKids Reports - Slovakia

This week the EuroKids programme took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Two young talented Welsh players travelled to Slovakia to be taken through their paces by Head Coach Piotr Skierski of Poland along with the rest of the EuroKids Participants. Joseph Roberts of Cardiff and Lydia John of Swansea travelled with regional coach Simon Oyler accompanied by Dave John.

First stop was a training session at BATTS Table Tennis Club in London before the team headed out to Slovakia from London Stansted.

Day one of the EuroKids Training Camp brought the EuroKids Tournament in which the standard of the matches where very high, Lydia and Joseph played some outstanding table tennis and managed to get some wins under their belt. Lydia qualified for the Top 16, whilst Joseph just fell outside the top 16 losing two matches in the deciding set which would have put him into the top 16 bracket.

Day two saw the completion of the tournament which Lydia finished in 16^th place after losing 3 matches in the 5^th set. Joseph Roberts also lost 3 matches in the 5^th set and finished in 19^th place. Both players showed great determination and showed their abilities to play and compete against the best in Europe.

Once the tournament was over it was then down to the hard work in the training hall, both players worked very hard and over the next few days of the training camp it proved a huge learning curve in the development of the players. Lydia seemed to improve with each session and took a lot of information from Head Coach Piotr Skierski. Joseph Roberts pushed himself very hard in order to improve his time at the EuroKids after he was slightly disappointed with his final position in the tournament.

Congratulations to both players on a very successful EuroKids Training Camp