August 11-15 I umpired my first international table tennis tournament,the Incheon KRA Korea Open.  The tournament was an International TableTennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour Event with $122,000 in prize money. Even with my hard work, the winners refused to share with me! hehe




The tournament was in a stadium that probably had a capacity of 5,000. I think we probably had around 2,000 attend the finals.


Yes, this my official table tennis uniform - even in sweltering, sweating August. Halfway through the tournament, I ran out of shirts! Thankfully, I was able to purchase some new ones across the street from my hotel at a Walmart-type store.



This was the entire officiating crew, with 36 Korean umpires, and others from Thailand, Taiwan, Japan.  Our racket controller was from  Australia, and the umpire evaluator was from Luxembourg.




This was the highlight of my tournament, and thankfully someone took a photo!  At 1-0 of the first game, both defensive players agreed to continue with the Expedite System.  If the server does not finish the point in 13 shots, the receiver gets a point.  Expedite System is so rare I'd never seen it in USA or Canada, and that includes several tournaments and umpiring 100+ matches.