91社区破解版

New and old faces competed in the recent Table Tennis Yukon Open Championships.

The Champs took place May 4-5 at 91社区破解版 Elementary School.

Tan Nguyen competed with his sons Tyler, 11 and Timothy, 7, in the Open Novice category.

鈥淲e started coming here just within this month. The kids, they wanted to try table tennis. I just found out they have a table tennis club here and I got them involved this month and then they had a competition here, so we just signed up.鈥�

Nguyen added, 鈥淲e鈥檙e just playing today and enjoying the fun.鈥�

Nguyen said, despite the family competition, 鈥淲e鈥檙e playing for real, you know.鈥�

Nguyen said he figured, 鈥淚f they鈥檙e gonna play, I might as well play too. Better than just sitting around watching.鈥�

Nguyen was asked what it means to be playing with his sons in the tournament.

鈥淚t鈥檚 wonderful,鈥� he replied. 鈥淚t definitely is family bonding time. Playing together and building relationships together through table tennis.鈥�

Philippe C么t茅-Jacques won the Open Men鈥檚 category.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a really fun tournament. A lot of good people around here, and I was really excited to go all the way.鈥�

This was C么t茅-Jacques鈥� first time in the Yukon. He鈥檚 here teaching orienteering for three months.

鈥淭his is my first-ever ping pong tournament.鈥�

He said he normally plays Racketlon, which, according to Wikipedia, is a sport in which competitors play a sequence of the four most popular racket sports: table tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis.

C么t茅-Jacques said he also participated in the Yukon Open squash tournament recently at Better Bodies.

He didn鈥檛 expect to do so well in the table tennis tourney.

鈥淣o, not at all. In the beginning, he wanted me to register for the Novice category.鈥�

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know how good he was,鈥� chimed in Kevin Murphy, the resident table tennis guru and head coach.

C么t茅-Jacques said the key to him winning was, 鈥淚 aim mostly for the backhand of the guy (Iman Gharraie), cause his forehand was really good.

鈥淗e was a really good player.鈥�

C么t茅-Jacques had two five-set matches on his way to victory.

鈥淓verybody鈥檚 good here. I had five good matches. Nothing was easy.鈥�

Murphy said he thought the tournament went really well.

鈥淲e had a lot of new faces and even some faces from the past.鈥�

One of the old faces included Vinh Ma, a former champion from 1985 now living in Toronto.

鈥淗e did really well,鈥� related Murphy, 鈥淗e ended up with the bronze medal and it was good. I鈥檓 glad I didn鈥檛 face him on the table, because we like to leave whoever won the last one back in the past. It could have ended our friendship if I had beaten him or he had beaten me,鈥� Murphy joked.

Murphy added, 鈥淗e鈥檚 been threatening to come back for a few years now and he finally did it. It was good to see him.鈥�

Ma said it鈥檚 good to be back playing competitively.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 playing any competitive games since I left 91社区破解版 and I鈥檓 not young anymore.鈥�

鈥淚t was good games. I think I played pretty good, to my standard. Couldn鈥檛 be any happier.鈥�

Ma added, 鈥淚 hope Kevin can keep this club going and going and going.鈥�

The list of winners from the tournament can be found on the Yukon Table Tennis Facebook page.