An exciting trend is emerging in Oceania Region Table Tennis, as New Zealand shows increasing dominance in Trans-tasman exchanges at youth level.

There was an epic encounter between Australia and New Zealand in the Under 21 Men's Team event at the

Oceania Championships on the Gold Coast this past weekend. New Zealand sealed the Gold Medal with a 3-1 win in a tough contest, with all matches going the full five game distance, bar the doubles.

Dean Shu beat both Ben Gould (11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7) and Rohan Dhooria (9-11, 11-6, 3-11, 11-8, 11-6) to spearhead the victory, Nathan Xu combining with Alfred Dela-Pena for doubles success.

Earlier, in the Senior men’s competition, Dean had beaten experienced Australian senior representatives, Heming Hu and Trent Carter, both previously ranked in the top 400 in the world. However, along with Matthew Ball and Dinyar Irani, he was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Senior singles event.

New Zealand continued their domination of the Under 21 Men's event when Nathan Xu saw of Australia’s Benjamin Gould to give New Zealand its first individual gold of the Championships. Nathan beat Gould 3-1, after defeating teammate, Dean Shu in a tight semi-final.

Full results can be found here: Click here