Table Tennis star Gavin Rumgay may have reached a Commonwealth ranking of seventh earlier this year, but he still has to pay for the privilege of playing for his country.

The Scottish number one has to dig into his own pocket to fund his trip to the Six Nations tournament in the Isle of Man where he hopes to help Scotland successfully defend their title.

The Perth player has grown accustomed to forking out to play his sport, but that burden could be eased as a member of the Great Britain Olympic squad - his place in the squad will be rubber-stamped this month and it will mean increased funding to support regular trip to tournaments abroad.

It will also mean, after this final year at the table tennis academy at Filton College in Bristol, that he will base himself full-time in Sheffield with the rest of the GB squad next year.

“It will take a burden off my shoulders,” the 23 year-old admits, “It seems ridiculous in this day and age where there is so much funding in British sport that I have to pay between £100 and £200 to play in the British Championships, but that’s just the way it is.

“I do get some help from the Scottish Sports Aid Foundation, and I have just signed a three-year contract with Stiga, which will give me unlimited equipment.

“That is quite substantial when a new bat can set you back £130.00 and they only last for three or four weeks these days.”

Rumgay was always keen to make his mark in the sport and, after leaving school, based himself full-time in Sweden which helped him learn what is required to play at the top level.

Over the past two years his world ranking has risen from around 500 to its current 317 and it promises to be a big season for him. Performances at the Commonwealth Championships in Jaipur, India, in June showed that he has what it takes to cut it at the top level.

He reached the individual quarter-finals before losing narrowly 12-10 11-8 8-11 4-11 2-11 11-9 2-11 to number two seed Zi Yang, from Singapore, a player ranked 33 in the world, and who went on to win the silver medal.  Rumgay is hoping to break into the top 200 in the world this season – more difficult than it sounds.

“It’s not like the tennis world rankings, where Andy Murray can move up pretty quickly,” he explains.  “For me to move up 100 places, I’d need to beat seven or eight players in the top 50 but, once you’re in the top 200, it’s quite difficult to move down.

“Getting there is the most difficult, but that has to be my aim over the next year. I feel I’ve made a lot of progress in the last 12 months.

“Before last season, I hadn’t won a grand prix event but I won five out of the seven I entered.  I started this season well by winning the Liverpool Grand Prix – the first event on the calendar – beating Carl Prean in the final.

“He is still in good shape as he is playing regularly in the Bundesliga [the German League] but I started the match well and came through.”

Rumgay also has Bundesliga commitments this season and has signed for second division side Leiselheim which will involve regular trips to Germany.  But it will give him regular quality matches as he seeks to take a major step forward this year.

He has found that, in order to keep up with the physical demands of his sport, he spends increasing hours away from the table.

“I play a forehand dominated game so you have to be able to move well just to be able to sustain the game,” he states.  “Since I played in Sweden, there has been a lot more emphasis on gym work as you have to be physically fit to play my style, and table tennis is an explosive game.

“I use the gym regularly in Bristol and a lot of the Bristol City and Bristol Rovers footballers are also in there a lot.

“I have also been using the track. I hadn’t run on a track until about a year ago but now I find it helps my overall fitness.”

London 2012 is the eventual target for Rumgay, by which time he should be at the peak of his game.

RM

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