Newly crowned national table tennis champion Simon Tomlinson will play professionally in Sweden come October.

Tomlinson, who played compelling table tennis to dethrone good friend and perennial opponent Kane Watson at the GC Foster College Auditorium recently, created the opportunity to play in Sweden last year while competing at the CAC Games.

While competing for Jamaica at the Games, Tomlinson, who had ranked 20th, was drawn to play the sixth-ranked Venezuelan national champion, the national champion who played professionally in Portugal.

“I promptly defeated him in the group stages 3-2 and immediately afterwards one of the coaches from Sweden took interest and said that he would want me to come and play at a tournament in Sweden and also to tour a few clubs and see what the possibility would be for me to play professionally there.

“So I went there in March and played at the Safir International Tournament at Orebro and got around to see what possibility existed for me to play there,” Tomlinson revealed.

“I played at the Kristine Hamns (BTK); they like the energy that they saw and my application and invited me back to be part of their team, so I will return to Sweden in October to begin what I am hoping will be a successful stint. I will be there for six months initially,” noted Tomlinson.