Kiwi table tennis prodigy climbs world rankings at rapid pace

Twelve-year-old Lucas Alexandre is on the ride of his life that he hopes will one day get him to the Olympics.

While most kids at that age are only dreaming of a sporting career, Lucas is already making significant moves in his sport of table tennis.

The youngster is now ranked number eight in the world under-13 boys' singles rankings - the highest world youth ranking ever achieved by a New Zealander.

Lucas has just returned from a six-week trip to North America and Europe, which included winning under-13 titles in the USA and Canada. He also picked up medals in under-15 events.

He then went on to train in Europe, including playing at the Swedish club of former world champion Jorgen Persson.

"It has been amazing getting to see new people and playing different styles," Lucas told RNZ.

Winning is obviously good, but what drives him most is the variety the sport offers.

"I like how you can create new shots and new serves and playing long rallies." Still, the trip also sharpened his perspective: "I need to do a lot more training and catch up to people".

He said he could not beat his dad yet, but part of that could be out of the gratitude he owed his family for the sacrifices they had made to allow him to pursue his dream.

Lucas' father and coach is Josh Alexandre, a former New Zealand representative. He has put his work on hold this year to help his son, leaving his wife as sole bread winner.

The family decided to remove Lucas out of school and have him study online, allowing him to spend time overseas competing and training.

"It was around supporting what he wanted to do," Josh said.

"Even though he is quite young it came to a point, especially because it is a minority sport in NZ, that if he wanted to make it then you really have to start from a young age. He said he wanted to give it a crack."

Josh Alexandre is also a Table Tennis New Zealand coach and while it is not a full-time paid job, it does allow him to spend a bit of extra time training with his son.

Table Tennis NZ does give some financial support and helped with the North American part of their trip, but their travel is primarily funding by the family.

The pair train together in the mornings every day and then Lucas regularly pairs up with someone from Auckland Table Tennis later in the day for another session.

"I spend up to 30 minutes trying new stuff with my dad trying to figure out how to create new stuff," Lucas said.

"I can't beat dad yet, but hopefully in the next couple of months."

Fellow New Zealander Eli Ho also won medals at the same North American events and has risen to number 30 in the under-15 boys singles rankings.

Table Tennis New Zealand chief executive Izania Downie said the rankings for the pair Alexandre and fellow teenager Eli Ho were a landmark achievement for the sport and their performance pathway programme.

"Exposure to high level competition through World Table Tennis events and international development programmes has played an important role in their progression on the world stage," Downie said.

"We're committed to creating opportunities for our athletes to compete internationally and test themselves against the best players in the world."

Lucas' ambition is to compete at the Olympics and his father said they were going to need help from others around the world to achieve that.

"This trip (to North America and Europe) has helped get Lucas' name out there and there have already been offers of help in the future."

But for now dad is there to help and sees it is a great opportunity for the family.

"I'm lucky that I get to spend this time with Lucas while he is young, when he gets a bit older he's probably not going to want me around too much so for me it's good to be able to help him in this part of his life.

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