National Able-Body High Performance Program receives funding boost

Table Tennis Australia’s (TTA) National Able-Body High Performance Program has been given an important boost towards its Tokyo and Birmingham aspirations, thanks to the support of Jeff Tran at Melbourne’s Coolabah Law Chambers.

With Covid-19 presenting a range of physical and financial challenges across most sports, TTA is fortunate to have received a donation from Tran, which has been used to provide extra support to its Melbourne athletes in lockdown.

TTA Performance Pathway Manager Simon Gerada expressed his gratitude stating that without the support, it would have been difficult for athletes to keep up their momentum this close to the Olympic Games.

“Coolabah Law Chambers has supported the training of our National Able-Body Squad. With this help, we’ve been able to stage some amazing in-house competitions for our squad, which have produced some high quality matches,” Gerada said.

“Behind closed doors, we saw Dillon Chambers progress his skills, while Yangzi Liu, Heming Hu, David Powell, Melissa Tapper, Nicholas Lum and Finn Luu also demonstrating their improvement over the period.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the support of Jeff and Coolabah Law Chambers. His donation has ensured that we’ve kept up business as usual, as much as possible, here at our Daily Training Environment Melbourne.”

For Tran, who has been involved with the sport for more than 40 years, the gesture was simply a case of supporting the good work he has continually seen from the Program.

“Whilst we have been in lockdown, I’ve received some fantastic reports from the coaches and athletes. For example, a few of the younger athletes’ parents were pleased to see their children gaining valuable match practise against the best in the country,” he said.

“I’ve been in the game for many years and have supported Table Tennis in Australia when I can, so in short I donated some funds to help provide opportunity to the group during these difficult times.”

In comparison to other High Performance Programs, the TTA Able-Bodied Program operates with limited budgets, and support like Tran’s goes a long way in helping the Program achieve its strategic goals.

“With extra support we’ve received over the years, we’ve built up a National Training Squad in Melbourne that trains more than 25 hours a week, we’ve established ongoing programs in each state and territory, and because of this we’ve seen success at Continental Level events, meaning we have earned maximum quota spots for the Tokyo Olympic Games,” Gerada said.

“We’re now calling on others like Jeff to get involved, so that we can continue producing results, and earn us much-deserved success at Birmingham and beyond.”

To contribute to Table Tennis Australia’s High Performance Programs, please contact Simon Gerada on simon@tabletennis.org.au