Archives | 26 Sep 2014

ETTU introduce European Championships U21

From 2016 the ETTU will have another event. At the ETTU Ordinary Congress held today in Portugal during the TMS European Championships in Lisbon, the delegates agreed to introduce the European Championships for players aged Under 21 (or possibly Under 23)

From 2016 the ETTU will have another event. At the ETTU Ordinary Congress held today in Portugal during the TMS European Championships in Lisbon, the delegates agreed to introduce the European Championships for players aged Under 21 (or possibly Under 23) in order to give opportunity to young players to adjust easily during the transition period. Itwill be only individual event, but the detailed regulation will be presented for comment and discussion at the 2015 Extraordinary Congress in Suzhou.

Congress accepted the Executive Board proposition about the European Championships that will also be fully affective from January 2016. In even numbered years the European Championships will include men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles events. In odd numbered years the European Championships will include men’s team and women’s team events. Only exception is the next year’s Championships in Yekaterinburg that will be held for Team and Individual Events.

The ETTU Congress agreed the format of European Championships with 3 divisions. In Championships division will be 16 teams, as well as in Challenge Division, and the remaining teams will play in Standard Division. A qualification for the European Team Championships will commence in preceding year. Competition will provide two home and two away matches for each competing Association.

There will be no match for the third position at the European Youth Championships in team’s Event.

Eberhard SCHÖLER was appointed as a new ETTU Honorary Member.

For a first time, special Badges were presented to the eight members of ETTU Family. The awarded officials are:
Aksel BECKMANN (Denmark), former president of DBTU, International referee;
Igor HELLER (Netherlands), long time serving Chairman of the ETTU Ranking Committee;
Zdenko KRIZ (Slovakia), President of Slovakia TTA for three decades and Chairman ETTU Veterans Committee responsible for numerous Championships;
Vladimir SAMSONOV (Belarus) role model for all table tennis players;
Francesco SCIANNIMANICO (Italy) President of the Italian TTA;
Rudolf SPORRER (Austria) General Secretary of OTTV former member of ETTU Executive Board, Chairman of the ITTF Rules Committee;
Christoph and Michael THEIS, computer experts engaged in almost every ETTU big Event
Eva JELER (Germany), one of the most successful coaches for young players.