The trip to Qatar was a memorable experience for all involved. As the first school team from Thailand to be given the opportunity to play in an ISF event for which we are very grateful for the PE department we were keen to make the most of our chance.
Sixteen boys teams and fourteen girls teams competed in the event from all across the World and in the group stages the boys played teams from Germany, Italy and Qatar whilst the girls played England, France and Italy. The level of tennis in the group was exceptionally high and a real eye opener for many of our students who although involved in successful teams at school had not experience this before.
The girls team finished 3rd in the group beating Italy and the boys despite some excellent wins from No 1 seed Leo finished 4th.
Following the group stage all teams were placed into a second stage against teams who had had similar results in their group – the boys were competing for positions 9-16 and the girls 9-14.
The second stage started well with wins for the boys against Chile and then Belgium and for the girls against Belgium and then Chile! This put both teams in the 9th and 10th place play off coincidently both against South Africa whose teams were both too strong on the day to leave us with a 10th place finish in both events.
On top of the tennis the team took part in a cultural visit and performed some Muay Thai boxing and a Thai dance in the Nations evening and make some new friends from many other countries.
This experience has certainly taught all my students a great deal about themselves and how tennis and sport can be played in a competitive manner but still not lose its fun element with sportsmanship and fair play an essential part.
I would certainly recommend Thailand try and enter teams in as many ISF events as possible to give the students an amazing opportunity to compete in something they are good at but above all love to do.