Young athletes have plenty to play for at Hopes Challenge Cup

September 17, 2025 | Paul Stimpson

Securing a place at the ITTF World Hopes Week is the incentive for the young athletes competing at the England Hopes Challenge Cup this weekend at the Elite Training Centre in Sheffield.

The winners of both the male and female competitions will be given a wildcard host nation spot at the ITTF World Hopes Week, being held at the same venue in October.

This weekend, day 1 will be a training day, led by Hopes coach Ben Barlow and supported by Natalie Green, Antony Constantinou & Emma Vickers from the Performance team.

Players’ home coaches will also be welcomed to the ETC to be part of the weekend.

On Sunday, the Challenge Cup begins. Players qualified for the competition by getting to the quarter-finals or beyond in the Under-12 singles at the Mark Bates Ltd U10-13 National Championships last season – or by receiving one of four wildcards per gender from the England Hopes coaches.

There will be three groups of four players per gender, played across two tables.Based on the results of the groups, players will feed into a second group stage of four groups of three players and play for positions – those in the top group playing off for that key top spot!

The event gives players lots of matches and opportunities to showcase their skills – look out for live updates on social media on the day.

The players competing are (not in ranking order):

Girls: Amber Lemmon, Bethany Yang, Cindy Xiao, Isabella Xiao Xu, Mindy Gao, Phoebe O’Brien, Serene Rahmani-Walentynska, Swara Mahabhashyam, Rabani Ahluwalia, Mila Gao, Sakinah Damji, Shreya Popat.

Boys: Jayden Chen, Li Hao Chen, Lusio Wen, Malek Shamakh, Oliver Glowacki, Ronan Lamont-Tierney, Sai Prasanna Kumar, Zac Sarri, Jonti Barnes, Lev Sahmurov, Stefan Wierszyllowski, Christopher Darby.

It has also been confirmed that Dimitar Dimitrov has been awarded a wildcard direct into the ITTF World Hopes Week.

The ITTF World Hopes Week brings together the best U12s players from around the world, who have qualified via their own continental process, and their coaches. The event includes a week of training, followed by the Hopes Challenge event on the closing weekend.

See the video below for more about ITTF World Hopes Week.