Maroondah schools: Pictures from Ringwood’s Eastland table tennis tournament

An international standard table tennis arena has been built inside a Melbourne shopping centre, and local school students were the first to test it out.

Students from Rolling Hills, Kalinda and Warranwood Primary Schools battled it out in a table tennis tournament at Eastland on Wednesday, August 31. Pictures: Kiel Egging.

Maroondah school students got the first taste of Melbourne’s newest sports arena as they battled it out in a special tournament.

Part of Eastland shopping centre in Ringwood has been transformed to host the Oceania Table Tennis Championships, which begin on September 5.

It’s the first time an international table tennis tournament will be held in an Australian shopping centre, with more than 150 players and officials to attend the week-long event.

In a warm-up for next week’s tournament, Grade 6 students from seven primary schools in Maroondah competed in an all-day teams competition on Wednesday.

Kalinda Primary School was named overall champion, while Ainslie Parklands Primary School’s Sol and Isaac triumphed in the boys singles, and Warranwood Primary School’s Elyssa and Paige won the girls’ singles.

Competition co-ordinator Edwina Ricci said the tournament was a great way for students to come together after two challenging years due to Covid.

“They have been in remote learning for a long time, and this has been a great opportunity for them to meet one another after so much school sport got cancelled during the pandemic,” she said.

“It’s been a really special thing, and there’s been fantastic sportsmanship and plenty of smiles.”

Here’s some pictures Leader captured of some of the students from Warranwood, Rolling Hills, Ainslie Parklands, Eastwood, Yarra Road and Kalinda primary schools enjoying themselves during the event.

Yarra Road Primary School's Solomon and Lilly fine tune their skills at Eastland during the Deakin Cup tournament.

Kalinda Primary School's table tennis team at Eastland – Gus, Declan, Jason, Belle, Charli, Laura and Rebecca.