MBF and OPT-86 lead the Finnish Championship for 12- and 13-year-olds

MBF and OPT-86 lead the Finnish Championship for 12- and 13-year-olds

Apr, Mon, 2026

MBF and OPT-86 were at the top when the Finnish Championships for 12- and 13-year-olds were contested in Ruskeasuo on April 18-19, 2026, for the first time on the same weekend. Max Takkavuori (KoKa), Hai Nguyen (Smash) and Kamilla Kadar (MBF) won the Finnish championship in her class as expected, but in the 12-year-old team competition, the MBF boys pulled off a surprise.

The competition organized by MBF was a successful experiment, as there was a great atmosphere of competition between 46 boys and nine girls in the Ruskeasuo table tennis hall. There were fewer girls than last year, but their level of play and the games between them were even, tight and really exciting.

It was wonderful to see how much the girls' level of play has improved, – MBF club coordinator Ildiko Kadar.

Jon Eriksson was the main organizer of the games with Ildiko Kadari.

The ranked players and teams generally held their own. Hai Nguyen (Smash, right), Max Takkavuori (KoKa, below) won the 13 and 12-year-old boys championships as expected, and MBF's Kamilla Kadar (below) took gold in both the 12 and 13-year-old girls' categories.

In the doubles, Hai Nguyen (Smash) and Eetu Mäkelä (OPT-86) as well as Kamilla Kadar and Jiali Lu (OPT-86) won gold, as expected.

Oulu's Eetu Mäkelä, who won silver in the 13-year-old category, was chosen as the champion of the games. The choice was influenced by Eetu's positive attitude, sportsmanship and strong will to fight that she showed throughout the games.

Joel Koivumäki (PT 75) played well, reaching the final of the U12 class and taking bronze in the U13 class. MBF's Magnus Jackson and PT Espoo's Sebastian Ristikangas also played well.

In terms of medals, the organizing club MBF was the most successful this time, with OPT-86 on the scoreboard.

Led by Hai Nguyen, Smash also collected a good haul of gold. It was gratifying to see players from all participating clubs winning medals.

Surprises

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the games was the fourth-placed MBF 12-year-old boys' team. Magnus Jackson & Leo Blomberg took gold thanks to their consistency and especially their good doubles play.

Viola Saarto (PTS Sherwood) surprised Jiali Lu of OPT-86 in the girls' 13-year-old semi-final and played without prejudice against Kamilla Kadar in the final.

Oulu's 13-year-old girls' team, Jiali Lu and Arina Bril, defeated MBF 3-2 thanks to good doubles play.

Good spirit even though we were behind schedule

The spirit at the competition was good. The children and young people were really excited and behaved in an exemplary manner.

Many 12-year-olds took advantage of the opportunity and also participated in the 13-year-old series, gaining good playing experience and in many cases also success. Of course, the lively participation in several series played at partly the same time caused a headache, as players were booked in previous games when the next ones had already started. This led to delays in the schedule, especially on Saturday.

The service in the hall worked well, even if we had run out of our own food. The restaurant downstairs quickly served tasty meals, and we were able to eat them in the stands while waiting for our own game.

Practice games continued outside of the official games. The tables were full almost all the time and it was gratifying to see players from different clubs continue to play with each other, encourage each other and have fun together throughout the tournament. The children's opinions about the arrangements were very positive and they had bats and balls in their hands much more than their mobile phones.

There were a lot of players who were delighted

Compared to last year, there were the same number of boys, although there were more 12-year-olds and correspondingly fewer 13-year-olds. There were fewer girls than last year.

12- and 13-year-old players in the Finnish Championship in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons

It was great that so many juniors were involved. The problem was that there was only a year's age difference between the juniors. Next year it would be better to organize the competitions so that the age difference is two years. MBF has proposed this change, -MBF Chairman Matti Vainio.

MBF thanks Ritzenhoff great prizes.

Ildiko Kadarin photo gallery found FROM HERE

Text: Sampsa Koponen, Ildiko Kadar & Matti Vainio — Photos: Ildiko Kadar

Results

N12

1. Kamilla Kadar (MBF)