JOOLA USA

Gerry Chua

I arrived at the playing hall, matches were in progress.  One third of the playing hall was reserved for the trials.  There were 8 tables assigned for matches and 4 practice tables adjacent.  From a photographer's point of view, table 1 and 8 was much darker than the other tables.  The other 6 match tables had much better lighting.  The rest of the hall was set up for badminton which was fairly occupied from mid afternoon on.  The morning session would end around 1:00 PM and would resume by 4:00 PM.  The long lunch break meant that matches would not have to played when sunlight would come through making some tables unplayable due to the glare.

It was great to be able to take pictures of all the players, some  I had never taken photographs before.  The playing level was very high, with matches having so much intensity.  There was great camaraderie among them, specially having to find a warm up partner. 

The playing hall has to be one of the better facilities out there for table tennis.  However, it is also one facility that is not easy to take photographs.  The lighting is a combination of indoor and natural.  The dark concrete walls does not help.  It is difficult to set the proper white balance thus the concrete walls appears greenish.

Kamran and the San Diego crew did an excellent job making the tournament go smoothly. The weather was rather on the cool side on Tuesday but eventually warmed towards the end of the week.  One aspect that needs some improvement is in the area of the draw for the Pan Am qualification.  It was fairly obvious whoever was responsible for the draw was unfamiliar with the players.  This resulted in members from the same club grouped in the preliminary round robin.

Congratulations to Mark, Eric and Han for making the Pan Am team; Joey, Steven, John and Justen for making the USA Junior team.