The Team’s Events European champion from 1976 in Prague and World Vice-Champion in Calcutta in 1975 Serbia’s Milivoj KARAKASEVIC passed away on March 26th at age of 74 after a short illness.
KARAKASEVIC started to play table tennis rather late when he was 14 but very quickly at age of 17 managed to become the soul of the one of the best teams in World at that time. In Yugoslavia with SURBEK and STIPANCIC he won eight medals seven in teams and one in doubles at the biggest events.
The whole life was some sort of competition for him and he never performed beyond his maximum. That is what he also taught his son Aleksandar. He told him that each point has to be earned by himself without help. Once Milivoj beat Aleksandar 21:0 when youngster was in mini cadets category to prove his point.
After success as a player KARAKASEVIC has stayed dedicated to table tennis and as a national coach lead his team to seven medal rostrums at biggest Championships.
After the news former national coach of Yugoslavia’s team Dusan OSMANAGIC bursted into the tears.
“Neither before nor after I saw anyone who was even near to KARAKASEVIC when we speaks about his dedication. In the arena he was able to spent all his life energy. It happened that he succeeded against the better player than himself and then fainted away from exhaustion. He was able to do for the team unthinkable and he is one of the rare players who never was able to disappoint ” said OSMANAGIC.
