Continuing a long-standing tradition at London Academy, the season concluded with a trip to the Ängby Summercamp in Stockholm, Sweden. This camp brings together young players from across Europe to train, compete, and form new friendships in one of the continent’s most beautiful capital cities.
For over a decade, this London Academy tradition has offered students the chance to develop their skills and fitness, make new friends in a supportive yet competitive environment, and for many, experience foreign travel away from their families for the first time. It’s a challenging and enriching experience for everyone involved.
The trip also presents one of the greatest logistical challenges for our coaching staff, coming at the end of a long, demanding, and ultimately successful season. This year, the group comprised twenty-three students and five adults, with most staying at a local school near the Summercamp venue.
This year, we implemented a mentoring system in which older students were each assigned two younger ones to assist with basics like preparing their kits, organizing the shower rota, and ensuring they were ready to depart for camp each morning after breakfast. The older students handled their responsibilities admirably, showing real kindness and consideration toward their younger teammates.
The trip began on a Friday in July with a very early morning flight from Heathrow Airport. After an uneventful flight and smooth transit through Stockholm’s excellent rail network, we arrived in Vällingby, a suburb of the capital that would be our home for the next seven days.
With the training camp starting on Sunday, Saturday was spent exploring central Stockholm. A day pass for the city’s transport network included the local ferries, which was helpful as the city is built on a series of islands. Despite the moody weather, we made the most of the day, and the kids were tired but happy and ready for bed as they prepared for the strenuous days ahead.
Sunday marked the first day of training. The Summercamp offers young athletes a series of real sporting challenges, not just through its intense training schedule but also by requiring them to adapt to new coaches, high-quality training partners, different training methods, occasional language barriers, and above all, a physically demanding week—even for those accustomed to training several days a week at London Academy.
The days quickly fell into a healthy but busy routine: breakfast, packing, training, lunch, more training, fitness sessions, dinner, showers, socializing, and then early to bed. But the week wasn’t solely about table tennis. On Friday, several players opted to play mini golf in the afternoon, with the route to the course taking us on a delightful half-hour walk through some beautiful Scandinavian forests.
The week’s training culminated in a series of competitions. The first was a closed tournament for camp attendees. The standout player was Parsa Yamin, who went undefeated to win the Division 2 Gold. In Division 4, Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska capped off an excellent season by reaching the semi-finals, pushing her much more experienced opponent to five sets before narrowly losing. In Division 5, Harvey Chung was the best-performing London Academy player, making it to the quarter-finals. In Division 8, both Naomi Adjei and Nicholas Andrei advanced from their groups but were ultimately defeated by the eventual winner, Dennis Erksén from Ängby SK. Naomi exited in the quarter-finals, while Nicholas fought hard but lost in a five-set semi-final.
Saturday saw a much larger field for the Open Tournament. In the Boys U14 section, Yacoub Rahmani-Walentynski and Dominic Rimmy performed remarkably well, reaching the knockout stages despite being among the youngest competitors. Unfortunately, both were eliminated in the preliminary knockout rounds. In the Boys U16 division, four of our players – Devan Shah, Ilyes Djeraoui, Parsa Yamin, and Fernando Frandes – made it to the knockout rounds. Fernando advanced the furthest, reaching the semi-finals before losing a highly competitive match to England U17 No.3 Isaac Kingham.
London Academy dominated the Girls U12 competition, securing all four semi-final spots. Gianna Pang defeated Alexia Ciobanica, while Serene Rahmani-Walentynska made a remarkable comeback from two sets down to beat Ruby Gandi Bamidele. In the final, Gianna’s speed and experience earned her a straight-sets victory over Serene. In the Girls U16 event, Soraya once again reached the semi-finals, eventually losing to the much older and more experienced Mia Lakhani.
With the final matches completed and the players showered, we gathered our gear and headed to the express train to Arlanda Airport for the flight home.
Special thanks go to head coach Bhavin Savjani for organizing and overseeing the entire trip. We would also like to acknowledge the immense contributions of Sylvia Rahmani-Walentyska, Ruth Gandi Bamidele and Eamon Brennan, who dedicated a whole week to caring for and guiding all the students.