Harrogate table tennis star Ruby Chan claims national championship

The Harrogate youngster won the under-11 girls’ singles title at the U11-U14 National Championships in Sheffield at the weekend.

The 11-year-old Western Primary School pupil was the top seed and justified her billing with a dominant performance, not dropping a set in group or knockout matches.

It culminated in 3-0 wins over Erin Green (11-2, 11-4, 11-0) in the quarter-finals, Sophie Rinnhofer (11-3, 11-2, 11-4) in the last four and Sophie Chiang (11-8, 11-4, 11-5) in the final.

Chan was also seeded third in the under-12 singles and knocked out second seed Nicole Scott 3-0 (11-5, 15-13, 11-6) in the semi-finals to set up a final clash against top seed Jasmin Wong.

That proved a challenge too far as Wong took the title with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-8) victory.

Chan, who learned to play at Harrogate Racquets Club, said: “I’m really proud and pleased with myself. I just wanted to fight to the last point in all my matches.

“I did all right against Jasmine Wong in the under-12 final but I beat Nicole Scott (in the semi-finals), which is a seed higher than me, so I was quite surprised by that.”