Italian Championships The Italian Championships which concluded tonight at the PalaTennistavolo “Aldo De Santis” in Terni hailed the victories of Marco RECH DALDOSSO (Aeronautica Militare) and Giorgia PICCOLIN (Centro Sportivo Esercito).  The 28-year-old RECH DALDOSSO won his second title in singles; the first was in 2016. He was seeded number 4 and on the final day he defeated in the quarter finals no. 5 Niagol STOYANOV (Centro Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) in five games champion in 2014 and 2018 and Marco prevailed in the semifinals against the 20-year-old Matteo MUTTI (Milano Sport Tennistavolo) no. 8 third in 2018 and runner-up in 2019. MUTTI was the creator of the upset in the previous round after the elimination (3-2) of no. 1 Mihai BOBOCICA (Aeronautica Militare).  In the final match RECH DALDOSSO prevailed over the 17 years old Andrea PUPPO (Tennistavolo A4 Verzuolo) 4-1 no. 13 seed and the real surprise of the event thanks to 3-2 win against Jordy PICCOLIN (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) no. 3 and 4-3 on the 18 year old John Michael OYEBODE (Il Circolo Prato 2010) no. 6. Bronze medalists are MUTTI and OYEBODE who reached the medal rostrum for a first time in the event as well as PUPPO.  Among the women the 25-year-old PICCOLIN who had already climbed the first step of the podium in 2018 in Terni and in 2019 in Bolzano reached the third golden medal in a row. She was the favorite despite being no. 5 of the seeding list and she justified the status by overcoming Le Thi Hong LOAN (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo) 3-2 in the quarter finals no. 4 seed in the reply of the 2019 final and 4-2 in the semifinals the 18-year-old Jamila LAURENTI (Gruppi Sportivi della Polizia di Stato – Fiamme Oro) no. 10 seed in the repetition of the final act of 2018.  In the match for the title PICCOLIN beat no. 6 seed Chiara COLANTONI (Tennistavolo Norbello) who played the first final in her career. She beat in the quarterfinals 3-2 Debora VIVARELLI (Centro Sportivo Esercito) no. 3 seed and in the semifinals 4-3 recovering from 1-3 the 15-year-old Nicole ARLIA (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo) no. 2 by exploiting the sixth match-point after having canceled two of the opponent. LAURENTI and ARLIA on her first podium were placed third.  Despite the difficulties related to Covid-19 Pandemic Italian Table Tennis Federation was one of the few European Federations to organize national championships. It is great satisfaction for president Renato Di Napoli and everybody in the organisation.

After hosting numerous top international events including World and European Championships the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen will host the 2021 German National Closed Championships for women and men on 28/29 August three weeks after the end of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The 89th edition of the German Championships was originally planned for the beginning of March the traditional date of the nationals for decades. But the ITTF had postponed the World Championships in South Korea which could not take place last year because of the COVID 19 pandemic to exactly this date. That’s why the German Championships had to move. The Germans cannot hold their tournament on the ETTU’s favoured date in January. Until then the qualifying events for the National Championships in the regional associations could not have been played. The lockdown in Germany will last at least until mid-February. DTTB President Michael GEIGER is looking forward to the first national title bout in Bremen:  “Table tennis is incredibly well received in the Bremen region. We are sure this will also be the case at the 2021 National German Championships. We have always received an immense amount of positive feedback at all our events in the ÖVB Arena and even set attendance records at various German Open tournaments as part of the ITTF World Tour. Bremen is an outstanding place for table tennis.” The ÖVB Arena was the venue for the 2006 World Team Championships the 2000 European Championships and eight German Open tournaments between 1999 and 2019. The record holder in the eternal best list of national championships in Germany is Timo BOLL who won his 13th singles title overall in 2019. In women’s singles Nicole STRUSE tops the leaderboard with nine victories. Current German Champions in the singles competitions are Ricardo WALTHER and Nina MITTELHAM who prevailed in Chemnitz in 2020. A total of 32 men and women in the singles and 16 in the doubles and mixed will play for the titles in Bremen. The ticket presale is expected to start in June and will apply to the at this time current prevention regulations.

RTTF will organize ROMSTAL National Championships in Buzau from 28th to 31st of January as it was planned.The event will include: Men’a and Women’s Singles and Doubles Events as well as Mixed Doubles. The tournament will be organised in a bubble system; all participants are required to present a negative PCR test upon arrival. The organisers has a expirience of organising the events under the strict mesuares. In 2020 RTTF already organized all National competitions with perfect security and under strickt health conditions -bubble system. Only the minicadets event were canceled. In 2021 RTTF has already scheduled the national competition calendar that will go according to the plan. Tomorrow the ROMSTAL National Championships kick off the competition in year 2021. The National Leagues will follow in February. Last year’s winners are Bernadette SZOCS and Ovidiu IONESCU.