Team Scotland’s Sport Focus on Table Tennis will start with a bang this weekend as the country’s top players gather in Perth to chase national titles at the Scottish Championships.

Top of the bill will be local boy Gavin Rumgay, bidding for a fourteenth Men’s Singles title, having surpassed Euan Walker’s record of 12 titles last year. He faces Gold Coast 2018 team mates Colin Dalgleish and Craig Howieson, runner-up last year, as well as past Commonwealth Games players Niall Cameron and Stewart Crawford, in a strong field of over 40 players.

In the women’s draw, Ayrshire’s Rebecca Plaistow will be going for a third Women’s Singles title, having scored a golden treble in 2018 as she took the Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles crowns. She is joined by 2018 semi-finalists Lara Stirling and Faye Leggett, the latter taking on the senior field again, having taken both Junior and Cadet Girls’ titles last year.

Many of the leading Singles competitors will also compete in the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles across an action-packed day of competition at the Bell’s Sports Centre on Saturday 2 March. With the senior titles decided, Sunday will see the turn of the younger players, as titles are decided in the Junior, Cadet and Minor age groups.

As part of our ‘Celebrating Our Past, Building Our Future’ theme, each month Team Scotland are putting one or two sports in the Sport Focus spotlight, featuring all 25 sports in which Scotland has competed in the Commonwealth Games.

Look out for all things Table Tennis on Team Scotland’s website and social channels this month as the sport shares the spotlight with Fencing. Join us as we delve into the archives for tales of past success and also look ahead to the rising stars of the sport in Scotland.

Table Tennis at the Commonwealth Games

Table Tennis first appeared on the Commonwealth Games programme in Manchester 2002 and has appeared at each Games since. Originally optional, it has now been made a core sport. There is also a Para-Sport Table Tennis discipline which is an optional discipline. Singapore was the top nation in Table Tennis at every Games until Gold Coast 2018, when India topped the medal table with three gold, two silver and three bronze.

At the sport’s first Games in 2002, Scotland was represented by five players: Euan Walker, Niall Cameron, Gavin Rumgay, Stewart Crawford and Claire Bentley. The best result came in the Men’s Team Event where Scotland performed to their ranking, finishing 9^th. Euan Walker was the top Singles performer, reaching the last 16.

Scotland won bronze in the Men’s Team Event at the 2013 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships and came close to replicating that result at Glasgow 2014 for what would have been the country’s first Commonwealth Games medal in the sport. The quartet of Gavin Rumgay, Craig Howieson, Niall Cameron and Sean Doherty performed brilliantly to reach the quarter-finals, producing Scotland’s best Table Tennis result to date with fifth place in the Men’s Team competition.

Find out more about Table Tennis in the Commonwealth Games on our dedicated Table Tennis page.

Scotland at the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is the only occasion where Scotland gets to compete in a multi-sport event as a nation in its own right and is one of only six countries to have competed in every Commonwealth Games since their inception in Hamilton in 1930. Represented by 15 athletes participating in six sports at those first Games, winning a very creditable 10 medals, Scotland have gone on to win medals at every Games since.

Edinburgh became the first city to hold the Games twice in 1970 and 1986 and also became the first city to host the Commonwealth Youth Games.

Scotland hosted the Games for a third time when Glasgow welcomed athletes and officials to the XXth Commonwealth Games which was held from 23rd July – 3rd August 2014. Team Scotland celebrated their most successful Games in history, winning a total of 53 medals and went on to record their highest overseas medal tally ever at Gold Coast 2018.

Find out more about the Commonwealth Games and Team Scotland’s past success in our Past Games section.