Development | 3 Nov 2022
ETTU launches the Europe Youth Series next year
European Table Tennis Union proudly launches the new series of events for the young players next year. The Europe Youth Series shall be open for entry to all Member Associations of the ETTU for the players Under 15 and Under 13 categories. We are building on the success of the Europe Under 13 Challenge this year at Podgorica in Montenegro and the decision of the Munich Congress to launch a European Under 13 Championships next year.
"ETTU is very proud of launching the Europe Youth Series already in 2023, after the huge success reached with the Europe Under 13 Challenge held in Podgorica in 2022. With this decision we are answering to our member Associations appeal, providing more opportunities to our European youngsters to compete internationally. In this series we are also promoting our goal on the gender equality, as we are encouraging competitions with mix teams, a system that was the big responsible for the unanimous applause our Europe Under 13 Challenge received last June. Together with the EYS, ETTU will also be presenting the ETTU Ranking System allowing players and coaches to follow their development. I want to personally thank all ETTU staff and ETTU committees involved in the implementation of the Europe Youth Series, as well as the Europe Ranking System, which I am absolutely sure will have an very positive impact on all our Member Associations, coaches and players," said ETTU Acting President Pedrom MOURA.
ETTU Acting Deputy President Heike AHLERT added: “I am very thankful that we can give our European associations this new opportunity to have more competitions for the age categories U 13 and U 15 – and I really hope that we will have bids for launching competitions especially with team events. As we have seen at the U 13 challenge the mixed team event was very much appreciated. Team events are very important for the developement and the social aspect of sport is particularly important here. Thank you to all involved in this project!”
The Europe Youth Series will consist of the following age categories:
U15 girls (born 1st January 2008 and younger)
U15 boys (born 1st January 2008 and younger)
U13 girls (born 1st January 2010 and younger)
U13 boys (born 1st January 2010 and younger)
Mandatory events for the organisers are Boys and Girls Singles events for Under 13 and Under 15 categories. Organisers can decide to have Mixed Teams or Boys Teams and Girls Teams Events for both age categories.
Optional events are Mixed Doubles and Doubles Events.
Whether there will be or not Doubles events it will be four or five days events.
In Mixed Teams in each match, two boys and two girls can be nominated by the team captain. A third or fourth player from the team can't play in that specific match. In exceptional circumstances Competition Manager of the event can allow players from the different associations playing in the same team, with condition that in the same team can't be players from more than two Associations.
The ETTU ranking for U15 and U13 will be available in 2023 as an experimental ranking system. The seeding for European Youth Series events will be according to European U13 and U15 ranking. The ETTU ranking system for U13 and U15 will be introduced no later than 15th of December 2022.
The deadline for the bidding process for the Associations interested in organising the event is 30th November 2022. Please submit this document to ETTU Competition Manager (competition@ettu.org) and to Secretariat (registration@ettu.org) no later than Wednesday 30.11.2022.
You can find relevant documents here.
