From the club archive — 2024. This article preserves the original report; event details, roles and arrangements refer to that time.
Once again, HiTT reconfirmed its place as the top table tennis academy in the Maltese Junior categories. During the 2024 Junior National Championships held between 18th and 25th March, our players managed to get hold of 11 National Championship titles from a total of 17 events.
This amounts to a staggering 64.7% of the total Gold medals that were up for grabs – a very high percentage indeed.
Apart from the 11 Gold medals, HiTT Academy players also won 9 Silver medals, bringing the total tally up to 20 medals out of the available 34. This breaks the record we set at last year’s Junior National Championships!
Out of all this, we’re most encouraged by the fact that alongside the usual contenders, we also saw new faces climbing up the podium, such as Jake Arora, Ben Vella, Sean Gatt and Kayden Griscti. These are the next generation of HiTT players, who will surely leave their mark on Maltese table tennis in the years to come. Besides the winners, there’s no doubt that all the HiTT students who took part in these championships exhibited improvement. This is most satisfying for our extended coaching team, who were able to see a tangible outcome for the fruits of their labour.
HiTT’s 2024 Championship Results
HiTT’s reported 11 titles from 17 events amount to 64.7% of the available titles. The table below summarises the results recorded in this report.
| Result | Total |
|---|---|
| National titles / gold medals | 11 out of 17 events |
| Share of available titles | 64.7% |
| Silver medals | 9 |
| Gold and silver medals combined | 20 |
This success is backed up by continuous investment in the club’s infrastructure and coaching programme. HiTT Academy in fact invested a lot of resources to put in place a development programme for its athletes, according to their level of development. This includes:
- 4 days a week training sessions between October and June
- 6 days a week (morning and afternoon) training sessions between July and September with participation of International coaches and sparring players of the highest level
- Mental training workshops
- Physical Fitness workshops
- Regular reporting and fine-tuning on an individual basis
- 2 to 4 international training camps in Serbia every year
- Participation in several international competitions and leagues
The Medalists – Junior National Championships 2024
Here’s the full list of medals obtained by our Junior Players:
- Julia Bonnici – U11 Girls National Champion 2024
- Luke Bonello (HiTT) & Luke Fenech (Topspin) – U19 Doubles National Champions 2024
- Danny Scicluna – U11 Boys National Champion 2024
- Jake Arora – U11 Boys Runner up
- Danny Scicluna & Julia Bonnici – U11 Open Doubles Champions 2024
- Jake Arora & Ben Vella – U11 Open Doubles Runners up
- Danny Scicluna – U13 Boys Singles National Champion 2024
- Julia Bonnici – U13 Girls Singles National Champion 2024
- Conrad Puli & Luke Bonello – U21 Boys Doubles National Champions 2024
- Oli & Sebi Farrin-Thorne – U21 Boys Doubles Runners up
- Julia Bonnici – U15 Girls Singles National Champion 2024
- Luke Bonello (HiTT) & Alice Mariani (Topspin) – U21 Mixed Doubles Doubles Runners up
- Oli Farrin-Thorne – U15 Boys Singles Runner up
- Oli & Sebi Farrin-Thorne – U15 Boys Doubles Runners up
- Luke Bonello – U19 Boys Singles National Champion 2024
- Oli Farrin-Thorne – U19 Boys Singles Runner up
- Conrad Puli – U21 Boys Singles National Champion 2024
- Luke Bonello – U21 Boys Singles Runner up
- Jake Arora & Sean Gatt – U13 Open Doubles National Champions 2024
- Julia Bonnici & Kayden Griscti – U13 Open Doubles Runners up
The results obtained during the Junior National Championships 2024 are a clear and bold sign that we are heading in the right direction. With a record-breaking 11 Gold and 9 Silver medals, the team’s success reflects their commitment to excellence in table tennis. Congratulations to all the players for their outstanding achievements and for making HiTT Academy proud!