Top-class table tennis player visits Mission Valle

Senior Olympic table tennis player Gary Pastushok honed his craft early in college and was introduced to the game from a Chinese friend at his college at the University of Manitoba in Canada.

There Pastushok, now a resident of Bismarck, N.D., learned the fundamentals of table tennis from one of the top table tennis players in the world.

“These provinces get a big chunk of money to support their sports and where I am from is a hotbed of hockey and international sports,” Pastushok said. “There are ton of hockey players and we will send hockey players elsewhere to trade them for the coach of your choice. China supplied the top university talent and is the No. 12 player-coach on the Canada National table tennis team. However, he could never pass level-5 English and that is how he ended up as our coach.”

A research scientist by trade, Pastushok, whose son also won a silver medal on the junior squad and placed second in Saskatchewan and second place in Quebec, put in the time to become a nearly level 2,000 player.

After qualifying from the Minnesota summer Olympics to try to qualify for the national Olympics in Birmingham, Ala., Pastushok placed third.

“Playing at the Nationals in front of a big crowd was an experience,” Pastushok said. “There was a big crowd and a bright red sports floor and bleachers.”

Pastushok, who is semi-retired from a company called Global Buyout, decided to take on table tennis as a way to combat Alzheimer’s Disease, which runs in his family.

“I lost 35 pounds playing table tennis three or four times a week,” Pastushok said. “I was playing table tennis three to four times a week against people in their 20s at a very high level. That kept me fresh and kept me from being depressed.”

Pastushok learned how to play in several different styles and even talked about the rivalry he has seen at the higher level of table tennis between Japan and the Chinese.

“The International style of table tennis is fast and highly trained,” Pastushok said. “It is so focused on what they are doing that is why there is a huge domination of table tennis by the Chinese. They’ve made a lot of changes in table tennis.”

Pastushok said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the level of talent Montana possessed.

“I am really glad to see the turnout for this tournament,” Pastushok said. “The caliber in the Western portion of the state was really quite good and quite larger than I anticipated.”