Steven Moreno won a treble at the Pan American Youth Championships. The young Puerto Rican won gold in the U15 singles, doubles and team events!

At the ITTF Pan American Youth Championships in Lima, Peru in early September, compass supported Steven Moreno had maximum success. In the U15 age group, born 2009 and later, Steven won the team event together with Enrique Rios, Sergio Perez and Matthew Cao.

Puerto Rico defeated Brazil 3:1 in the semi-final and USA 3:0 in the final to claim the title. Steven Moreno led his team brilliantly, winning both his matches against Brazil and beating Charles Shen in straight games in the final. Rios and Cao were also successful against the USA.

Steven teamed up with Rios in the doubles. The team beat Vitor Thiofilo/Vinicius Rech of Brazil 3:1 in the quarter-finals and then Santiago Uribe/Samuel Duffoo of Peru in straight games in the semi-finals. The final was also played in straight games against Benjamin Archua and Agustin Asmu of Argentina.

In the singles, Steven Moreno won his third gold of the tournament. He was dominant and never came close to defeat. He won both his quarter-final and semi-final matches in straight games against Charles Shen of the USA and Felipe de Melo of Brazil respectively. His final opponent was Luan Santos of Brazil and it was here that Steven Moreno showed his mastery, winning 3:1.

“I am so happy to have achieved this,” said Steven afterwards. “Thanks for all the support from compass!”

On the other side of the world, in Vientiane, Laos, another compass supported Pan American, Colombian Emanuel Otalvaro, participated in the WTT Youth Contender. Emanuel, who was born in 2010 and is just 14 years old, even managed to reach the final four in the U19 category. Emanuel defeated Singapore’s Wong Jaryi 3:1 and in the quarterfinals he defeated Thailand’s top 4 seed Wasaphon Yatawanon 3:2, 11:7 in the decider. In the semi-finals, Otalvaro lost to Hung Jing-Kai of Chinese Taipei in straight games.

One of the ways that compass helps the talents it supports is by organising first-class camps.

One of these took place in Budapest, Hungary, for eight days starting on 12 September. Special invitations were extended to Danilo Faso from Italy and Görkem Öcal from Turkey, both U13 European singles champions and now preparing for the U15 event at the Europe Youth Top 10, which will be held in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland, from 4-6 October.

“The camp was held to work intensively and individually with these two talents,” said Daniel Zwickl, Managing Director of compass. “We brought in special expertise to help them develop. We organised sparring partners of different styles – left-handers, choppers, slower players with spiny games and players with high pace games”.

Hungarian internationals Bence Majoros and Adam Szudi were two of the sparring partners. There was also a strong focus on physio. This included injury prevention, body mobility and physical work such as strength and balance.

“We do this for the players so that they can take it back to their home environment and integrate it into their daily work,” explained Daniel Zwickl.

At the Europe Youth Top 10, as written above, which will take place in Poland from 4-6.10., Danilo Faso and Görkem Öcal will face the following opponents in the U15 category: Patryk Zyworonek (Poland), Robert Istrate (Romania), Samuel Michna (Poland), Aleks Pakula (Poland), Francesco Trevisan (Italy), Sandro Cavaille (France), Pavol Kokavec (Slovakia) and Mark Gergely (Hungary).

There will also be events for U19 boys and girls and U15 girls.

Europe Youth Top 10