The first team of 1. FC SAARBRÜCKEN TT is heating up already from beginning of May. As soon as German Government allowed professional players to train the club gathered main players. “We are working in groups of five four players and coach and we are getting ready for the Bundesliga Playoff semi-final. Unfortunately COVID 19 Pandemic spoiled our plans for the Table Tennis Champions League Men semis this year ” explained coach Slobodan GRUJIC. In the Bundesliga it still uncertain how and when the semis will be played. “There is an option that we play only one semi final leg on 8th 9th or 10th June and to play final in Frankfurt on 14th; other option is to play semis in Frankfurt day before final something like Final four. Anyway we are waiting for the final decision.” In the semi final of the Bundesliga play offs leader after regular part of the season and 21 round is 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT. They will meet fourth team at the standings SV Werder Bremen. Borussia Düsseldorf will play against TTF LIEBHERR Ochsenhausen. In Table Tennis Champions League Men 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT beat Post SV Mühlhausen 1951 e.V. in quarters to join Borussia Düsseldorf Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC. “There will not be doubles match in play offs which is good since we cannot count on Tomas POLANSKY right now. He had to return to Czech Republic since he had the back injury. I hope he will recover soon but his doctors have to make exam. We are expecting Cristian PLETEA to join us at trainings as soon as health regulation allows him to travel from Romania. Patrick FRANZISKA Darko JORGIC and SHANG Kun are here healthy and they are working to recover their shape for future challenges.” FC Saarbrücken-TT has a plan to organize mini TV tournament at the beginning of the June. “We started to work almost a month ago but the lack of matches is evident. That is why we are looking for opportunity for organizing something for players to play ” stated GRUJIC.
Pandemic halted TT Saint-Quentin’s best season ever
Sarah De NUTTE and Andreea DRAGOMAN will join French side TT Saint-Quentin Team Manager Jean-Louis POLARD spoke to us after eight weeks of complete lock down in France. The club reached the semifinal in the European Champions League Women but pandemic halted their fantastic run. “Last season was very frustrating as it could have been our best season ever. Unfortunately the French League was stopped. Yet we were lucky enough to become ‘co-winner’ of the ETTU Champions League with 3 former European champions. The best result for a French team in this competition. A historic title!” said Manager POLARD. In the club there are the Canadian and two Russia’s player. “Everybody was locked down for eight weeks in France and we all missed table tennis. The President and the coach kept in touch with our female team to know how their foreign players managed abroad.” According to the national restrictions the sports hall is still closed in Saint-Quentin and players are just allowed to train outdoors with physical exercises in groups of ten. “Fortunately our best players can keep fit abroad and practice at home with their national team or on their own. The coaches hope the situation will be better in June and that they will be allowed to have indoor sessions.” The French League was stopped in March and it was very unfortunate for our team which was 1st in group A with seven victories including the one against 2019 French League Champion. “Finally TT Saint-Quentin was the only unbeaten team of the season out of 12 teams. It really deserved the 2020 national title but the French TT Association just declared our female team as the winner of the first half of the season.” For the new season in Champions League TT Saint-Quentin is seeded again N°4. “So we hope to reach the semifinals and this time to play them. Everything could be OK for autumn if there is no second coronavirus wave. In case there is a good fortune-teller around please let us know ” joked Manager POLARD. “For next season we will have the same trio with Canadian MO Zhang Russian Polina MIKHAILOVA and French Aurore Le MANSEC plus Sarah De NUTTE from Luxemburg and Andreea DRAGOMAN from Romania along with French coach Franck Delcambre.”
Jens LUNDQUIST joined Roskilde
Roskilde have been closed completely from 12th March until now. In the Danish club they hope to start again to play on 8th June but it’s not confirmed yet. Only national team and few players have the chance to practice. The League in Denmark was cancelled on April 1st and we did not have any Champions this year it was quite hard to accept “We hope to start as normal soon and the Danish league will start as normal in September. We in Roskilde also want to play Champions League this upcoming season” explained Manager Allan BENTSEN. There are some changes “We have change one player ZHAY Yujia have left for Pontoise and Jens LUNDQUIST from Angers replaced him. Michael MAZE will still be here in Roskilde.”
Mühlhausen
Post SV Mühlhausen 1951 e.V. finished last two seasons in TTCLM in quarterfinal. For next season they are seeded at the position no. 10. „After our failure in TTCLM quarter finals against a very strong 1. FC Saarbrücken TT we were focused on TTBL. With two more victories against Werder Bremen 3:0 and TTC Bergneustadt 3:2 we saved the fifth place in TTBL. It is the best result in club’s history “ explained Post SV Mühlhausen 1951 e.V. Manager Thomas STECHER. After that everything stopped. COVID 19 Pandemic halted all sport life. „ All of us were overrun by Corona crisis. TTBL had canceled the final match day in regular season. At the moment we have the „Big Four“ hope for play offs in June.“ It is still impossible to return to trainings in the venues. „We had to close our hall on March 13th. And it is still closed. We plan the re-start for June 2nd. The most important thing for us is that all players from our club stayed healthy Germany made and make a very fine job; our county Thuringia our region Unstrut-Hainich and our home town as well.“ Manager Thomas STECHER is very positive. „Our players our coach and the management had to do short-time work and to stay at home. But we are strong and I’m convinced that the club will survive.“ Bundesliga gathers the players from all over the World. It is big problem under current circumstances. „In Mühlhausen we hope to re-start the clubs training on June 2nd but for our players it is difficult to say how much is feasible. The reason is that not only every country in Europe has different rules but in Germany for example nearly every town has their own regulations regarding health safety.“ What is the plan for next season? „To stay healthy and to play in a good shape to confirm our strong result in TTBL. However we are very concerned about the ITTF’s time schedule after the long time break. About participation on a European Club Competition we don’t agree yet because of the economic consequences after Corona crisis. And we expect many more uncertainty factors – like international schedule or travel restrictions.“ Who will play in club next season? „We will play with the same team again: Daniel HABESOHN Ovidiu IONESCU Lubomir JANCARIK Steffen MENGEL and coach Erik SCHREYER.“
POLAT: Europe is not an ordinary Content it is a family
“ ETTU will be able to collect data and plan future activites with it. Furthermore our participants will receive a certificate to award their attendance to the training sessions ” added POLAT. “ Our project team has made a wonderful work an incredible effort with strong table tennis love and dedicated souls and with all their bests. It’s also great feeling to see our future-talents feel excited ready to exercise and happy in these tough days. So I thank each participant of our Web-Camp and and happy to see that our main goals are achieved. One last note It’s always a privilege to work with Neven CEGNAR it’s an incredible experience to work coordinately with him. Neven CEGNAR “I express my full gratitude to all our national associations all the young players who participated in the Project and especially to our hard-working fellow coaches for their diligent and dedicated work. They made a great contribution to the success of this common Project. Special thanks to our friend and colleague Samet POLAT who designed and coordinated this Project. This Project has shown and proved that even in such specific situations we can achieve great results. I am sure that the overall experience from this Project will be a good base for some new ideas which I already have in my plans for the future. Babür ÜSTÜNDAĞ “I’m honoured to be a part of this project. It was pleasing for me to see that project leader is from Turkey. I’d like to thank ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR my colleagues Afonso VILELA Lara BROICH Marcus GUSTAFSON Omer GENDLERAND Sergio VIERA and the players. The organization was very fruitful for not only players but also for the coaches so proud to be with the project team! Lara BROICH “It was my pleasure to be part of the new project system of the ETTU. I think it was a good experience for coaches and players. It is a special time new for all of us and it was a great idea to show them that they are not alone and you can do also a benefit in difficult times. Samet Polat and Neven Cegnar did a good job!” Marcus GUSTAFSSON “I’m very happy for the opportunity to support this fine project by the Turkish TTA and ETTU during these challenging times. It was a good action to activate some of our best young players in Europe together and a rare opportunity to bring them and also us coaches closer together which for sure we all will benefit from for the future”. Afonso VILELA “By the situation we face at the moment that we have to accept and respect it new challenges and adaptations are required. The content of the coaches was extremely important. As a coach I learned a lot from all the members of the coaching team so I can imagine in 2 weeks what kids have learned…i hope they took this opportunity for each one for them’s growth because EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE even when you have to “stay at home.” Besides these hard times focus must go on. Very challenging experience for me thanks to my Association on giving me this opportunity and to all players coaches CEGNAR and Samet.” Omer GENDLER “I had great time working with the European young players. They were very cooperative and highly motivated. This webcamp was a good example of how European coaches and players can work together. This is the way for our continent to become better and stronger. I hope everyone got the message: even in limited conditions you can still improve.” Sergio VIERA “It was an excellent and original iniciative. I believe that it wasn’t easy to make this webcamp happen and for this reason I congratulate everyone specially Samet and Neven. I would like to add that one of the most important things that improved these sessions were the tips given by Neven allowing the sessions to get better day by day. I believe that all the coaches learned and took something new from this experience.” International Relations committee chair in Turkey TF and member of the ETTU Youth Committee Samet POLAT successfully created launched conducted and finished the develompment program ETTU Web camp 2020. Under guidence of ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR the project gathered top European coaches and players in order to help young players to improve and work during the Pandemic isolation. It attracted 57 players from 19 National Associations and 30 coaches. “This project has proved once more that Europe is not an ordinary Continent it is a family! All members of National Associatians all players all kids are a part of this family. We had great sessions and great guests as Zoran PRIMORAC Eliza SAMARA Tamara BOROS Özge YILMAZ Ece HARAÇ Tin Tin HO and Marie MIGOT and the project is not over yet” annonced POLAT.
GROTH made a proposal during Corona and Ann-Sophie said yes
In the beginning of the March Table Tennis Denmark was in a very good and optimistic shape. The Association had the highest number of members in 25 years. The last year the number of members increased with 13%. But after that…Denmark closed March the 12th and all sports activities were not allowed any longer. Now it seems that the numbers of infection of the Corona virus is going down. The President of the Danish Association Anders MØLGAARD said: “The shot down of the social business and economic activities in Denmark is slowly being withdrawn. The first phase started 14th April with no sport including. The second phase started 10th May with selected outdoor sport and phase 3 will start 8th June and we hope that table tennis will be included in phase 3.” If that will be the case the clubs will be able to return to the club- and the training facilities on the 8th June with some limitations to socializing. “Our professional players who are a part of the national team and practice under the national organization “Team Denmark” were allowed to return in the beginning of May. The situations for players who is not included in the Team Denmark group the situation is still uncertain.” In Denmark officials expect all tournaments and match play to be suspended until earliest August and for tournament probably longer. Association have stopped all leagues and they will not be opened again for the season 2019/2020. There will not be named national champions in the Danish leagues this season. It has been a strange life for the national players. “It is strange to be home ” said the best Danish player Jonathan GROTH. “Normally we are travelling round in the whole world and now I have been home in two month. The worst is the uncertainty. When can we play again ? Fortunately we have been allowed to practice in the Danish Head Center in Brøndby from this week. In the beginning of the close down I practiced a lot physical . Now I practice five times table tennis and five times physical in the week. Denmark have done of other outdoor sports like mountain bike badminton and tennis and some.” The best ranked Danish player continued: “I really hope we can start playing tournaments after the summer period. I will play again this year for the Russian club UMMC in the Champions League. We were in the semifinals and were quite disappointed when the tournament was cancelled. My hope is we can start playing international in September and may be European championships during the autumn. I am happy I have qualified for the Olympics so I do not have the stress to play qualification but can plan my preparations in time.” Life is not only sport. Jonathan GROTH has also used his time in a proper manner and been on his knees to make a proposal – and she said yes. Jonathan GROTH and Ann-Sophie JEAN will marry next year after the Olympics.
European Stars visits ETTU Web Camp Sessions
European Table Tennis Union has been carrying out an impressive project led by Samet POLAT from Turkish Federation and Neven CEGNAR ETTU Development Manager. The project has begun on 11th May and in second week of action some great names joining the sessions as guests. 2019 France Women’s Singles Champion Marie MIGOT was the first guest of the sessions last week and joined the “Yoga” session of German coach Lara BROICH. A European legend last European World-Championship medalist in Women’s Singles former World No.2 Tamara BOROS also joined to one session yesterday. Tamara has joined the “Strength exercises” session of Babur USTUNDAG and has underlined that it is vital for modern table tennis players to be physically strong. The next guest will be 2015 European Women’s Singles Champion Eliza SAMARA and England Women’s Singles Champion Tin-Tin HO & Turkish EYC silver medalist duo Ozge YILMAZ & Ece HARAC will also join to the team on 22.05.2020 Friday.
Liu Jia returned in LINZ AG Froschberg
After three years since April 25. 2017 LIU Jia returned to her parent club. “Froschberg-Susi is back home ” announced Linz AG bosses GÜNTHER and Robert RENNER and ÖTTV President Hans FRIEDINGER after the ex-European champion signed the one-year contract. “I would like to stay in Froschberg to win my third Champions League title like in 2009 and in 2013 “said the 38-year-old player. “Corona made it possible” smiled Chairman Günther RENNER. The postponement of Olympic Games to 2021 forced LIU Jia to look for a new club after three years in Germany with ex-champion Kolbermoor. “We put together a perfect deal. LIU Jia can optimally prepare for the Olympics in Linz and she will be the club’s captain in the Champions League and in the decisive games in the Bundesliga. After “said sports director Robert RENNER and added:” Susi should weld the new team together and then become a co-manager in the club. We were two club managers and now there will be three. “ LIU Jia was very energetic: “It gives me great pleasure to be back in the Champions League after the Championship title and the Cup win in Germany. I want to end my career with a title. “ Hans FRIEDINGER also underlines: “LIU Jia recently won the Top of Austria Challenge her advertising value; her prominence and her name are inextricably linked to Linz AG Froschberg. It’s perfect for public relations and can fill the hall in the Champions League. “ Froschberg is in third place for the new Champions League season LZ Linz Froschberg is in second place in the Europe Cup.
Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg and KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg leads the Clubs seedings list
Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg of Russia and KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg of Poland are the leading clubs at the respective Men’s and Women’s seedings list in the 2020-2021 European Club Competitions. The results of the clubs from the last 3 European Club Competitions’ seasons will be used for the 2020-2021 European Club Competition’ seeding. Result points allocation: from the 2017-2018 season 20% 2018-2019 season 30% and 2019-2020 season 50%. Points for the clubs having reached the Semi-Finals in the 2019-2020 season (and not played due cancellation) received average sum of points for the Winner Runner-up and Semi-Finalist. In case of equality in total points for clubs in important positions at the seeding the most recent result will decide if equal the result in the previous season if still equal the result in the season before that. If still equal a draw will be done. Limitation of teams per national Association for TTCL is 3 and for ECLW is 3. Note which starts with the 2021-2022 season and not in the coming season 2020-2021: The Europe Cup winner from the current season is directly qualified for Champions League of the coming season. (not possible for 2020-2021 season as the 2019-2020 season has been cancelled at Semi-Final stage but will be for the 2021-2022 season). Starting with the 2021-2022 season only results from the previous season will count for ranking. In a first phase clubs are asked to fill in a preliminary entry form (deadline 29th May 2020). The preliminary entry registration is not mandatory but strongly recommended as it allows ETTU to better analyse and prepare the 2020-2021 season. You can find entery lists here https://www.ettu.org/en/events/european-champions-league-women/regulations—documents/ and here https://www.ettu.org/en/events/table-tennis-champions-league-men/regulations—documents/ . In a second phase clubs can register their club (provisional deadline 9th July 2020). As the seeding is made by club ranking and no more by their players’ ranking the players are registered at a later stage (phase 3 – provisional deadline 3rd September 2020). ETTU indroduces the new competition – Europe Trophy Men and Women 2020-2021. That is the Regional competition (3rd level competition) to start in 2021 with less obligations to the clubs and played regional. More information on Europe Trophy available within short. ECC MEN CLUB SEEDING 2020-2021 Total points Club Name Country 860 Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg RUS 780 Borussia Düsseldorf GER 720 TTSC “UMMC” RUS 570 1. FC Saarbrücken TT GER 384 GV Hennebont TT FRA 370 Sporting Clube de Portugal POR 354 KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki POL 331 Roskilde Bordtennis BTK 61 DEN 329 SPG Walter Wels AUT 320 Post SV Mühlhausen 1951 e.V. GER 245 SF SKK El Nino Praha CZE 230 VS Angers TT FRA 225 Ping Pong Club Villeneuvois FRA 176 Table Tennis Club Ostrava 2016 CZE 175 Benelux Group Taverzo NED 175 K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo POL 165 TTC Sokah Hoboken BEL 160 AS Pontoise Cergy TT FRA 150 Leka Enea TDM ESP 140 Cajasur Priego TM ESP 135 STK Starr Croatia CRO 131 Stella Sport La Romagne FRA 125 SK Vydrany SVK 125 Borges Vall ESP 120 Chartres ASTT FRA 120 TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen GER 118 “Fortune” Kyiv UKR 111 GDCS Juncal POR ECC WOMEN CLUB SEEDING 2020-2021 820 KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg POL 700 TTC Berlin eastside GER 660 Linz AG Froschberg AUT 540 TT Saint-Quentinois FRA 440 Dr. Časl CRO 420 Metz TT FRA 400 UCAM Cartagena T.M ESP 360 SKST Stavoimpex Hodonin CZE 290 ALCL TT Grand-Quevilly FRA 285 “TMK-TAGMET” Taganrog RUS 260 Girbau-Vic TT ESP 225 TTC Villach AUT 213 Leka Enea Tenis de Mesa ESP 205 Budaörsi 2I SC HUN 160 Bursa Büyüksehir Belediyespor TUR 132 TT Moravsky Krumlov CZE 270 CP Lyssois Lille Métropole FRA (4) 172 LZ Linz Froschberg AUT (team 2 Linz) 170 Etival Clairefontaine ASRTT FRA (5) 130 TTC Kazan RUS 124 Tecnigen Linares ESP 122 GDCS Do Juncal POR 120 Sporting Clube de Portugal SCP POR 84 DT Roodt-Syre LUX 80 ACS Dumbravita ROU 80 Szekszard AC HUN
Federation of Latvia has good news: The trainings are back on
It seems there is almost no other topic: Corona has us firmly in its grip. The combined forces of media economic paralysis and politicians under pressure all but ensure that ever more uncertainty is spreading. But now the Table Tennis Federation of Latvia has good news: from May 12 practice is allowed in sports halls for groups fewer than 25 persons including a professional coach. The boarders of Baltic countries will be open. Before that Latvia’s national team players used their own possibilities to organize individual training processes. Best junior players Sabina MUSAEVA and Daniels KOGANS can use the opportunities which give them STAG – official national sponsor of our team. The video with Daniel performance “While in quarantine learn better ways to use the corridors” you can see here. Ina JOZEPSONE the president of Table Tennis Federation of Latvia said: “We need now to focus not only to the national team needs but also put an eye to the situation with our clubs sport schools leisure and veteran players. Most of them will have different problems after the situation will back to normal. We understand that the cancellation of our domestics’ competitions will impact greatly on the table tennis community but we are all in uncertain times together and we must put the health and safety first. The federation board needs to find the new dates for postponed competitions especially for NETU veterans Championships which was postponed from April. Of course we are closely monitoring the situation and we do hope and wish to find the new dates for XX North European Veteran Table Tennis Championships later in the year if the situation gets back to normal. The health of all our members players sponsors friends and staff remains the key priority for the Table Tennis Federation of Latvia at this time of great uncertainty.”
