Home nation Australia take men's and women's titles at ITTF Oceania Cup

William Henzell (left) beat compatriot David Powell (right) in the men's ITTF Oceania Cup final ©ITTF

Hosts Australia claimed a clean sweep of titles as the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Oceania Cup reached its conclusion in Bendigo.

Top seeds and defending champions William Henzell and Lay Jian Fang secured the men’s and women’s crowns respectively, as both comfortably won their finals 4-0.

Henzell overcame compatriot David Powell 11-5, 12-10, 11-7, 12-10 to score his seal his fifth consecutive title win, dating back to the inaugural 2011 edition in Adelaide.

The 33-year-old has consequently qualified for the ITTF World Cup, scheduled to take place in Halmstad, Sweden from October 16 to 18.

“I'm proud to have earned the right to represent Oceania at the World Cup later this year, which will be a very important event in the lead up to qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics,” said the three-time Olympian.

“I've been back in training for the past three months and I'm pleased about my form at the Oceania Cup.

“It was an important confidence boost for my aspirations to qualify for Rio.

“The Bendigo Table Tennis Association along with the ITTF did a fantastic job to run the most professional event we've seen in Australia since the 2000 Olympics [in Sydney].”

Lay Jian Fang secured her second ITTF Oceania Cup crown by beating New Zealand’s Li Chunli ©Getty Images

In the women’s gold medal match, Lay repeated her success from last year at the very same venue, to defeat New Zealand’s Li Chunli 11-5, 12-10, 11-6, 12-10.

Like Henzell, Lay also earned a spot at the ITTF World Cup, with the women’s event due to be held in Sendai, Japan, from October 30 to November 1.

Meanwhile in the Pacific Cup, New Caledonia’s Laurent Sens and Ornella Bouteille are the newly crowned champions after defeating Vanuatu’s Yoshua Shing and Tahiti’s Melveen Richmond in the men’s and women’s singles respectively.

The ITTF Oceania Cup formed part of the first-ever international table tennis event to integrate able-bodied and Para-table tennis.

Australia also dominated the ITTF-Oceania Para Table Tennis Championships, winning all four events across the men’s and women’s 3-5 and 6-10 singles classes.