Hurray! With one match still to play, HiTT Academy Tibhar have already sealed their 5th National League title! So far, our premier division team composed of Gabriel Grixti, Isaac Grixti and Conrad Puli are undefeated, having played and won 11 out of 12 seasonal matches. The league champions conceded just 6 sets out of 67 played sets until now!
A Shorter Table Tennis Season
The 2022/2023 season was a shorter one than usual. This was due to a series of unprecedented issues that arose within the previous MTTA administration, which led to a late start of the season. A temporary 3-member board was set up by the Malta Olympic Committee to help bring some stability within our sport. This board, with the help of a number of hard-working table tennis volunteers, organised a shorter version of the league, with one full round between all the 9 participating teams and then a shorter second round, where the league table was split between a championship pool and a relegation pool. Despite this very unorthodox format and some peculiar decisions with halving the points after the first round, our top team coached by Mario Genovese sailed smoothly onwards and upwards, winning match after match to finally claiming their 5th consecutive title.
League Champions: Reason to Celebrate
This is news that brings us joy, and a great deal of satisfaction. For the players themselves, the achievement was huge, considering that all three of them were also playing in the Italian National League (FITET) on a weekly basis, and all three of them had examinations in the meantime. Despite all this, they trained and worked hard all through the season, and their effort shows also in their seniors’ ranking points, with Gabriel maintaining his rank as 1st in Malta, Conrad in 3rd place and Isaac in 4th.