100th Hungarian National Championships   The 100th Hungarian National Championships will be held from 4th March to 5th March in the Arena of Erd (ERD). Winners will be awarded in 5 categories Men’s Singles Women’s Singles Men’s Doubles Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.   In absence of PATTANTYUS there is no main favorite in the men competition. Among the favorites we can mention the title holder Tamas LAKATOS   Janos JAKAB and Peter FAZEKAS already won the throphy several times they also will try to enrich their treasuary. But they will have to be careful with the youngsters like Adam SZUDI Bence MAJOROS or Nandor ECSEKI.   The highest ranked hungarian player on the ITTF World Ranking Georgina POTA won’t be at Erd due to flu. So we can say the same as in the men competition there is no clear favorite. Few names from the list who will run for the title: Dora MADARASZ and Krisztina AMBRUS are former champions but we cannot forget Szandra PERGEL and Mercedesz NAGYVARADI from the national team. For sure they will try to prove to their new national team coach Zoltan BATORFI how good they are.   TITLE HOLDERS:   Men’s Singles:  Tamas LAKATOS Women’s Singles: Georgina POTA Men’s Doubles: Bence MAJOROS Marton SZITA Women’s Doubles:  Krisztina AMBRUS Mercedesz NAGYVARADI Mixed Doubles:  Krisztian NAGY MercEdesz NAGYVARADI   Schedule:  4 March – Women’s Doubles (qualification) and Men’s Doubles (qualification) Mixed Doubles (qualification and main draw) Men’s Doubles and Singles – Qualification   5 March – Men’s Doubles and Singles (main draw) Women’s Doubles and Singles (main draw)

The 2016/17 Greek National Championship will be held this weekend in Athens   The upcoming National Championships of Greece faces familiar questions concerning favorites for the titles. First of all will Kostas PAPAGEORGIOU continue his supremacy or new champion will be established after seven years? Quite different situation exists in the Women’s event where six different players took gold in the last six championships. Altogether guaranties exciting competitions this weekend (March 4-5th) in Athens (STIGA area at the Peace and Friendship Stadium).   PAPAGEORGIOU won all titles since 2010 but there are players able to beat him. Possible threat could be his teammates in Olympiacos Tasos RINIOTIS (runner-up last year) and John SGOUROPOULOS (only 17-years-old but a member of the national team from the last year) as well as PAPAGEORGIOU`s predecessor in the champion’s role Ioannis VLOTINOS. Big ambitions also have Kostas LAGOGIANNIS and Dimitris PAPADIMITRIOU and young players like George KONSTANTINOPOULOS Konstantinos KONSTANTINOPOULOS and George STAMATOUROS.   In the women’s singles event six different players won championships in the last six years: Katerina NTOULAKI (2011) Filareti EXARCHOU (2012) Christina FILI (2013) Maria CHRISTOFORAKI (2014) Katerina TOLIOU (2015) and Georgia ZAVITSANOU (2016). Four of them are members of the current national team (ZAVITSANOU TOLIOU CHRISTOFORAKI and EXARCHOU).   Seven times national champion Christina FILI last year’s runner-up surely has a capacity to upset favorites as well as Olga GEORGOPOULOU and Aliki KIOUFI. Some younger athletes like Konstantina PARIDI Ellie FISHER and Ioanna GERASIMATOU could be dangerous.

Lithuanian Table Tennis National Championships   The 87th Lithuanian Table Tennis National Championships starts on March 3rd. For three days 32 women and 32 men will fight for champions title in Lithuania capital Vilnius.   Last year the champion titles were defended by 2015 year winners Egle STUCKYTE and Alfredas UDRA. Both players won champions titles for the third time. The championship will show if last year champions will defend their title for the fourth time.  

Finnish Championship   Finnish Championship will take place in the city of Kuopio on Saturday and Sunday. This is the first time ever that the club Kuopion Pöytätennisseura are organising the Finnish Championshipis.   The main favourite in Men´s singles is easy to name. Benedek OLÁH is slowly but surely recovering from the toe surgery and everything but his win would be a huge suprise.   In women´s singles there are few candidates: Annika LUNDSTÖM is reigning champion and she is in good shape now too but she will face a huge challenge from Anna KIRICHENKO and Yumo LUO.   In Men´s doubles Benedek OLÁH is playing with Lauri LAANE who is a very good doubles player but not among the highest ranked players in singles. Otto TENNILÄ & Miikka O´CONNOR will put OLÁH/LAANE on severe test to say the least. Both of them have also played in Finnish Team international matches this season.   In Women´s doubles there are three good pairs and everyone of them can take the title. Annika LUNDSTRÖM & Pihla ERIKSSON are the highest seeded pair.     Winners in 2016:   MS: Benedek OLÁH WS: Annika LUNDSTRÖM MD: Benedek OLÁH/Otto TENNILÄ WD: Sofie ERIKSSON/YUMO Luo Mixed D: Lauri LAANE/Yumo LUO  

National Championships   The JKP SPED Czech national Championships will be held in Frydlant nad Ostravicí during the weekend (3rd – 5th March).   The defending singles champion Tomas KONECNY and Dana CECHOVA lead the field so the Czech national championship offers interesting duels. In a women´s competition the bronze medaillist from ETTU European Championships U21 Zdena BLASKOVA and the medaillist from Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum in Qatar Hana MATELOVA or the seven times Czech champion Renata STRBIKOVA will take part. Just Iveta VACENOVSKA (the national champion of the 2005 2007 2011 2012 2014) will miss the competition.   “I am really happy that the field is strong so the championship´s title will be really valuable ” the defending champion Dana CECHOVA said. “I would be satisfied with the semifinals. Afterwards it will be a tough situation. We know there will be number of opponents who would like to show their best and beat the ones on the top. I consider Hana MatelovA as the biggest favorite of the event. She plays in a good form at the moment.”   The defending champion TomAS KONECNY will face the strong field of opponents as Dmitrij PROKOPCOV Pavel SIRUCEK Tomas TREGLER or talented junior player Tomas POLANSKY will take part as well.   The championships starts on Friday with the qualification matches the main tournament is scheduled for the weekend. New Czech champions will be crowned on Sunday afternoon   Men Singles: Tomas KONECNY Doubles: Pavel SIRUCEK Tomas TREGLER Women Singles: Dana CechovA Doubles: Aneta KUCEROVA Karin ADAMKOVA Mixed doubles: Tomas POLANSKY Zdena BLASKOVA Juniors U21 Singles Men: Tomas POLANSKY Singles Women: Zdena BLASKOVA  

The President of the Cyprus Table Tennis Association Mr. Andreas GEORGIOU was elected as the new General Secretary of the Cyprus National Paralympic committee in the elections that took place on 9 February 2017. The election of Mr. Georgiou has brought joy not only to the fans of the Table Tennis in Cyprus but also all friends involved in the sports sector and especially of the Paralympic movement in Cyprus.   The candidacy of Mr. Georgiou was broadly accepted by everyone and as such in the end he was elected unopposed. Following his election to the General Assembly of Cyprus National Paralympic Committee were the elections took place he mentioned the following:   ”I would like to thank all sport federations and people who have supported my candidacy and have entrusted me οf this important position of the Cyprus National Paralympic Committee.I will continue with the same thrive to support Sports and will make any possible effort so as table tennis athletes with disabilities just like any other athletes would have the equal opportunities to play sports. I would also like to thank all ITTF and ETTU friends for their timeless support and for helping me by sharing their organizational and administrative valuable knowledge having in mind that the level of knowledge of these 2 organizations are of the two biggest in the world”  

National Championships Best Norwegian players will fight for the titles from Friday 3. to Sunday 5. March in Norheimsund sportshall.   Defending Champion in Men`s Singles Event is Geir ERLANDSEN he is going for is 14 victory! Other strong title pretenders are Marcus WÆRSTAD Eskil LINDHOLM Roger ANDERSSON and Lars RØNNEBERG.    Regarding women`s competition Ilka DOVAL is favourit to defends the title. Other title pretenders are Rebekka CARLSEN Maja Haugen GJELLE and the sisters Anna and Marte Grutle AASEBØ.   The tournament start an Friday with Team and Saturday and Sunday its doubles an singels.  

English PG Mutual National Championships   Paul DRINKHALL Liam PITCHFORD and Sam WALKER are the top three in the men’s singles at he English PG Mutual National Championships. DRINKHALL is the defending champion and has won the event five times in total – one more will put him level with England coach Alan COOKE on six but still some way behind Desmond DOUGLAS who won 11 titles.   PITCHFORD has won the men’s singles three times while WALKER is looking for his first victory – he lost in the final to DRINKHALL last year.   The defending champion in the women’s singles is Tin-Tin HO who won the event for the first time last year when she beat Kelly SIBLEY in the final. SIBLEY is top seed and will be aiming to win her sixth title.   The event will also see Joanna DRINKHALL make her playing comeback for the first time since 2014 since when she and Paul have had two children.   Joanna and Paul will play in the mixed doubles and Jo will partner Sibley in the women’s doubles. However she is not playing in the singles.   In the men’s doubles DRINKHALL and PITCHFORD are the hot favourites to win the title for the fifth year in succession.   The defending champions in the under-21s are Tom JARVIS and Maria TSAPTSINOS.   The event is being held at the University of Nottingham and also features three para classes with six Paralympic players competing including champion Will Bayley.   The men’s doubles women’s singles and men’s singles finals will be shown live on the SPORTbible Facebook page from 2.15pm GMT on Sunday.   https://www.facebook.com/SPORTbible/?fref=ts    

Croatian national championship   From Friday until Sunday (March 3-5 2017) the best that Croatia currently has to offer in table tennis will play at the National Championship that will be held at a destination called Sveti Martin na Muri. To be more exact the destination being the resort LifeClass Terme Sveti Martin where the table tennis club STK Starr is the host of the national championship in categories men’s and women’s singles and doubles.   The championship will surely be extremely interesting and players will not have an easy task in snatching the titles. In Men’s category will play all the best players with the exception of the Croatian no. one Andrej GACINA. Just to mention a few top contenders for the title:Frane KOJIC will be defending last year’s title; Tomislav PUCAR this year’s European Under 21 champion and last year’s finalist; Tomislav KOLAREK as one of the Croatian National Team players as well as a number of excellent players will battle it out for this year’s title. The title is all the more appealing for all the players since GACINA was the champion for many years and the only two players that are playing this year that succeeded in snatching the title before are Frane KOJIC and Ronald REDEP.   Women’s category will also not be lacking in excitement and quality since almost everybody will attend the event which is not often the case. The competition this year will be fierce which we have not witnessed in a long time.   Petra PETEK from Varazdin will be defending her last year’s title both in Singles and Doubles only this year she will try to win the doubles title with Ivana TUBIKANEC and not Bojana POLJAK as last year. Men’s doubles champions last year were Tomislav PUCAR and Filip ZELJKO a title that Pucar will try to defend this year with another doubles partner since ZELJKO has not been participating in any of the tournaments for a while now.

The European Table Tennis Union President Executive Board and Secretariat send their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Anders JOHANSSON and the Swedish Table Tennis Association.   Anders JOHANSSON was an inspirational international table tennis coach and a man of integrity and thoughtfulness in his profession.   We will miss him.