ZERO expectations made Dillon Chambers’ breakthrough Australian table tennis championship that bit sweeter.
Previously being a runner-up and a semi-finalist, the 26-year-old claimed his maiden men’s singles gold medal at the 2024 national championships in Mandurah, WA, through multiple superb performances.
The week was topped off by a gold medal in men’s doubles alongside Xavier Dixon, while Victoria also won silver in the teams’ event.
Chambers, an Australian Commonwealth Games athlete and former German Table Tennis Bundesliga competitor, said the singles victory was a proud achievement.
“It’s been a couple of years trying but it’s nice to get there – it’s something I’m pretty proud of,” he said.
“I didn’t have too many expectations going into it – there are others who will be competing at the Olympics playing there and have been playing regularly while I’m working full-time now and not playing as often – so I guess it was a bit of a surprise victory.”
The Sunraysia Table Tennis Association graduate, who was the sixth seed in the tournament, started his campaign with victories over Queenslander Yudong Shi and fellow Victorian Sajith Silva, before a quarter-final match -up with Kane Townsend of NSW, who he had an unflattering record against.
“I think I was 1-14 against him going into that match but managed to win four sets to one,” he said.
He then defeated reigning champion Xuqi Lin 4-2 in the semi-final before coming from three sets to two down to win the final against longtime Victorian teammate Finn Luu, who is bound for the Paris Olympics, in seven sets.
“We haven’t played against each other too many times but I think our head-to-head was about 50-50,” he said.
“I tried to stay clam throughout and managed to come back from three sets to two down to win the last two sets 11-6.”
Chambers, who has relocated to Melbourne post European career, also claimed gold with Dixon, defeating the team of Lin and Yonis Yihang Xu three sets to nil in the final.
The table tennis prodigy added it was a nice surprise to win silver in the teams’ event.
Chambers said he still harboured ambitions of qualifying for the Olympic Games after missing the team for the Paris games starting this month, while he also hoped to return to the Commonwealth Games arena.
The next major event for the former Mildura star is the Oceania Championships in Auckland in October.
“It’s a pretty important event in that it’s where we can achieve world ranking points,” he said.
