Alayna's Ping Pong Journeys

Excited to announce my being named to the Team Canada Shadow Squad! This is a level below the Olympic and World Championship squad. It's a solid step forward in my athletic career, and I'm looking forward to the possibilities that lay ahead! Next week I will be taking off for the Finland Open!

Thus ends my tourney in Warsaw. It was very tough; In the whole tournament I had only one chance to take a set and was one point away from taking it, but the players were all ranked much higher than me and I ended up with a record of zero. :P It was a good learning experience and I had the opportunity to watch the top players in the world (literally, both male and female # 1's were there!) compete. Back in Liege and back to the grindstone with a renewed sense of motivation!

In Warsaw for the Polish Open, competition starts tomorrow!

2 days, 3.5 hours of sleep, 3 teams, 11 matches, and 11 happy but very tired victories made for a well appreciated day of rest today. Next week we take on Diest, our rivals from the final of the Belgian Cup last year!

Safely arrived in Belgium, with our first league match on Saturday against Anvers, the only team that beat us last year. So I guess there's no plan to just ease in here is there?

Feels like a flurry of media interviews that I've done these past couple of days! I'm really grateful for the exposure the sport is getting and the interest the media has shown! Updates to come!

2015 Canadian champions in women's doubles :D

Happy to report not dropping a single set on my first day at the Canadian Senior national championships! Tomorrow will be busy as u21 and women's singles continues, as well as the start of the rated events and women's doubles.

Last match tomorrow morning in the Canada Cup finals. It will be streamed live, 9:30am local (8:30am SK time). I will be playing for 9th place.

Last team match for the first half of the season today against Nodo. With 3 B0s on the line-up (same ranking as me) it looks to be an interesting match-up! Tonight I'll be playing in the men's national 2 division, and then no more league until the new year.

Flying back to Belgium today, after a moderately sucessful competition in Finland. We lost our first team match 2:3 against a combined team of Denmark and Netherlands. In singles I finished in 32nd place, which was an improvement from my ranking of 42nd place. Two more weeks in Liège and then I'll be home for Christmas!

The crisp cold air in Finland is reminding me of my Canadian home. Tomorrow I will compete in the team event with my partner from Israel, who I haven't met yet! Teamwork will be the key!

Excited to announce my being named to the Team Canada Shadow Squad! This is a level below the Olympic and World Championship squad. It's a solid step forward in my athletic career, and I'm looking forward to the possibilities that lay ahead! Next week I will be taking off for the Finland Open!

Thus ends my tourney in Warsaw. It was very tough; In the whole tournament I had only one chance to take a set and was one point away from taking it, but the players were all ranked much higher than me and I ended up with a record of zero. :P It was a good learning experience and I had the opportunity to watch the top players in the world (literally, both male and female # 1's were there!) compete. Back in Liege and back to the grindstone with a renewed sense of motivation!