The draw for the forthcoming 2015 European Youth Championships in Bratislava was conducted today In Bruxelles at the Belgian TTF headquarters ETTU Youth Committee Chair Sandra DEATON the ETTU Ranking Committee Chair Igor HELLER and the Deputy Secretary General Pierre KASS conducted the draw for the forthcoming 2015 European Youth Championships in Bratislava (10th – 19th July). The draw was done on the current ITTF ranking list (May 2015).In the Junior Boys Teams Event 40 countries will have its representatives. In top Division top seeds last year’s winners team of France will play against Hungary Spain and Croatia. In Group B Sweden will meet Germany Slovakia and Denmark. In Group C 2014 runners up Poland will meet Czech Republic Belarus and Portugal. In Group D Russia will face the opposition from Slovenia Austria and Ukraine. In Riva del Garda last year France clinched the title in Juniors Girls Team’s Event as well. Now in Group A they will start their journey at the Championships with matches in the first phase against Hungary Serbia and Estonia. In Group B are Romania at the top followed by Spain Portugal and Croatia. In Group C Germany will face Poland Czech Republic and Israel. In Group D Russia is the leader followed by Belarus Slovenia and Italy. The complete list of teams includes 34 countries in this event. French players stood at the top position of the medal rostrum three times last year in the Team’s Event. Cadets won the title in Italy but on the top of the Group A is Romania. They will meet Poland Hungary and Czech Republic. France is the leading nation in the Group B. Russia Turkey and Denmark are also there. In Group C Italy is at the top followed by Lithuania Sweden and Slovenia whilst in Group D Germany at the top will play against Moldova Belgium and Serbia. In Cadet girls Event Romania succeeded to the throne in Riva del Garda but at the top of the list is runner up – Russia. In Group A Russia will meet Czech Republic Poland and Hungary. In Group B France will play against Belarus Germany and Austria. At the top of the Group C is Sweden. Serbia Belgium and Spain will try to halt their progress. In Group D Romania is with Slovakia Turkey and Ukraine. Team Events will be played from 10th to 14th of July.
Orenburg`s time in the TTCHL
“I am proud of our magnificent team and always believed in its success! These tremendous victories – a worthy gift to Russia and to our native Gazprom” stressed Orenburg`s vice-president Victor ANDREEV speaking about their third title in the TTCLM Fakel Gazproma Orenburg started their table tennis life in the opening year of the third millennium but these 14 years was enough to establish itself as one of the best European clubs. Actually Russian club is just one of three who managed to reach TTCHL three times since its foundation (October 20th 2001). Belgian Charleroi did it four times since that (2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2006/2007) Borussia took three (2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011) as well as Orenburg (2011/2012 2012/2013 2014/2015). Although Russian side is proven champion its vice-president Victor ANDREEV emphasized that the recent third TTCHL title reached after exciting finals against Borussia has a special place in the club`s history. Ten times European champion had 3:1 advantage from the Dusseldorf`s first final leg but they were beaten 3:0 on the Russian soil.“The May 29 2015 is a historical date for Russia”! stressed Victor ANDREEV. “TTC Fakel – Gazprom for the third time won a title of the strongest club of Europe! It was the great victory over great club Borussia Düsseldorf. This match became the real decoration of the 2014/2015 Champions League! Our players made the real sports feat! We prepared very seriously for this match all players were adjusted on a victory”. ANDREEV explained why coach Valery SALABAEV in the final rematch put Vladimir SAMSONOV to play as team`s no. 1 instead of Dimitrij OVTCHAROV: “It was necessary to risk with the line-up of our players but we hoped for success. Lineup of our team was successful. SAMSONOV OVTCHAROV and SMIRNOV played simply perfectly. The match turned out fantastic! Our players were in an excellent form thanks to Fakel – Gazprom’s magnificent victory on May 24 in Yekaterinburg in the final of the Russian Championship over one of the strongest clubs of Europe – UMMC!” Coach SALABAEV added:“Sometimes in two-legged opposition defeat in the first game is a good incentive before the second meeting. The line-up chosen for the score 3:0 and each player was determined to win in his game. Strong support of the Orenburg fans helped us to cope with this difficult task”. Orenburg was founded on 20th October 2001. Since 2003 the title sponsor of the club is Gazprom who provided an excellent conditions for club`s development. In its very first season in Russian Super League (2004/2005) he managed to become a champion. Table Tennis Center of Russia has been opened in 2013. After 14 years Orenburg has 15 titles in total. They won Russian Super League seven times (2005 2006 2008 2011 2012 2014 2015) Russian Cup three times (2006 2009 2012) as well as TTCLM (2012 2013 2015) reaching two more competition once ETTU Cup (2010) and European Super Cup (2012). The recent final against Borussia was Fakel Gazproma`s sixth in a row in both ETTU competitions since they won ETTU Cup in 2010. After all Victor ANDREEV wanted to say one more thing:“I am proud of our magnificent team and always believed in its success! These tremendous victories – a worthy gift to Russia and to our native Gazprom”!
DR CASL regains the title in Croatia
Men’s team clinched the title whilst girls had to settle with second position DR CASL regains the title lost last year in the close finish of the season in Croatia. They also won the top position in the European Superleague. In Superlaeague they defended the crown and that takes the club to second position of the overall list below the Niederösterreich with 11 titles. In the first leg it was 5:5 and in return leg 6:2. After thrilling closing game in the decisive play off final match the women’s team suffered defeat against Mladost. VUGRINEC had nine match points in total against DURAK before she lost the encounter. Superleague final second leg Dr. Časl – U-21 6:2Japec Zeng – Fučec Čipin 3:1 (11:7 11:9 8:11 13:11)Japec – Simović 3:1 (9:11 12:10 12:10 11:9)Zeng -Pucar 2:3 (11:7 12:10 7:11 3:11 10:12)Kolarek – Zeljko 1:3 (7:11 11:9 11:13 3:11)Zeng – Čipin 3:1 (11:8 11:6 10:12 11:8)Japec – Zeljko 3:1 ( 8:11 11:9 11:6 11:8)Kolarek – Pucar 3:1 (11:8 10:12 11:4 11:7)Zeng – Zeljko 10:12 12:10 15:17 11:6 11:9
Czech table tennis celebrated its Ninetieth birthday
Celebrations of the 90th anniversary of organized table tennis in Bohemia and Moravia took place on Saturday May 30th in Hodonin Exactly ninety years went by since the history of organized table tennis in the Czech Lands Moravia and Slovak began. This significant anniversary of a ping-pong village was greatly remembered and celebrated in Hodonin last week. The Czechoslovakia now Czech table tennis definitely had a lot to celebrate. Apart of many other accomplishments they are pride of an amazing number of twenty-nine gold medals from the World championships as well as in having the second most successful player in the entire history of the world of table tennis. – Bohumil VANA. However it was not only Bohumil VANA who made the country famous but there are many other famous names who have forever become an indispensable part of the world table tennis history such as Marie KETTNEROVA Vera VOTRUBCOVA Vlasta DEPETRISOVA Stanislav KOLAR and later after the war Ivan ANDREADIS and Ladislav STIPEK. All these and many others have contributed to the fact that table tennis is one of the historically most successful sports ever practiced in the Czech Republic. Surely it is no coincidence that the Czechoslovak table tennis players still carry the forth place in the number of medals from the world championships behind „great ping pong countries“ of China Hungary and Japan. Celebrations of the 90th anniversary of organized table tennis in Bohemia and Moravia took place on Saturday May 30th in Hodonin. Apart of a grand Czech delegation the Czech table tennis for remotely promoted and congratulated to by the leaders of the World and European table tennis organisations- Thomas WEIKERTand Ronald KRAMER. So called Galadne was attended by many prominent personalities of the Czech table tennis as well as special guests from abroad. Amongst the most attractive certainly belonged to the trio of world champions coming from Hungary István JONYER Tibor KLAMPAR and Gabor GERGELY.The extremely rich program offered many examples of exhibition matches such as the younger vs. older generation match between Tomas TREGLER (current CZ representant) and the legendary Elisabeth KREJCOVA-FURSTOVA as well as the “golden age” match played by Jindrich PANSKY Marie HRACHOVA Josef DVORACEK and Alice GROFOVA-CHLADEKOVA. The celebration in Hodonin could of course not happen without the presence of the current Czech table tennis representatives. Besides the aforementioned Tomas TREGLER the art of current ping pong was as well presented by Iveta VACENOVSKA Hana MATELOVA or Kateřina PENKAVOVA. The highlight of the program was a 30minutes long speech presented by the Vice World Champions in doubles from 1985 Jindřich PANSKY and his long-term colleague and friend Milan ORLOWSKI. During the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Czech table tennis in Hodonin the Hall of Fame of Czech table tennis was enriched by 8 new grand names. Its founding members –Milan ORLOWSKI Jindrich PANSKY and Petr KORBEL have inaugurated their new colleagues Marta LUZOVA-HEJMOVA Eva POKORNA-KROUPOVA Eliska KREJCOVA-FURSTOVA Libuše UHROVA-GRAFKOVA and in memoriam: Ladislav STIPEK Vlasta VLKOVA-DEPETRISOVA Vera JAKESOVA-VOTRUBCOVA and Vaclav TEREBA. The Czech table tennis is more than alive. With humility and reverence it constantly looks into the future. And it hopes to be as successful as during the past ninety years..
Tsuboi and Kumahara Qualify for ITTF World Cups
Gustavo TSUBOI and Caroline KUMAHARA claiming the men’s & women’s titles respectively at the 2015 ITTF-Latin America Cup Brazil has once again proven itself as the table tennis powerhouse in Latin America with its top players Gustavo TSUBOI and Caroline KUMAHARA claiming the men’s & women’s titles respectively at the 2015 ITTF-Latin America Cup that concluded in Cuba on 31 May 2015. Their victory means that the duo qualify directly to take on the world’s best players from other continents at the prestigious ITTF World Cup’s later in the year. Despite losing the first 2 games in the all-Brazilian finals TSUBOI was able to turn the tide around to defeat the defending champion Cazuo MATSUMOTO 4-2 (8-11 6-11 11-8 13-11 11-7 11-7) to claim his second ITTF-Latin America Cup title after his first victory back in 2011. Delighted about gold the top seed shared “We know each other since we are under 18. We train together and this was the most difficult match I had. Our matches were always close and this time I have to fight back. It was really hard when I am trailing behind and I had to change the rhythm to win.” “It’s a double joy for me because it is also my birthday today. Now I will take some time to enjoy this victory and I will think of the Pan American Games next.” In the women’s finals matchup KUMAHARA successfully defended her crown to score the third continental cup title in her career. She accounted for her compatriot GUI Lin 4-0 (12-10 12-10 11-8 11-2) to seal her victory. The Sao Paulo native expressed “Although it was a 4-0 match it was hard. I began very well in all four games but she fought back making it difficult for me.” “There is always high level table tennis at play at the Latin American Cups and matches are hard from the group phase. I was happy for my performance here and gained confidence for the Pan American Games. This year I haven’t been good not very focused. I wasn’t expecting to be champion but this achievement makes me keep training harder. The Pan American Games are going to be difficult.” The Liebherr 2015 Men’s World Cup will be held in Halmstad Sweden on 16-18 October and the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Sendai Japan on 30 October – 1 November. The ITTF World Cups are amongst the most prestigious event in the world with only the top 18 players qualifying for the event through the continental cups plus the world champion and one wildcard. Qualifications for the 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups: Current World Champion: MA Long (CHN) DING Ning (CHN) NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) Marcos FREITAS (POR) Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE) LIU Jia (AUT) Petrissa SOLJA (GER) Irene IVANCAN (GER) GAC Group 2015 Asian Cup: XU Xin (CHN) Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) FENG Tianwei (SIN) LIU Shiwen (CHN) K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup: William HENZELL (AUS) LAY Jian Fang (AUS) Double Fish 2015 ITTF-North America Cup: Jimmy BUTLER (USA) ZHANG Mo (CAN) 2015 Latin-America Cup: Gustavo TSUBOI (BRA) Caroline KUMAHARA (BRA)
European trio secured their place at the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai
Maciej KUBIK Elizabet ABRAMIAN and Sophia KLEE are selected to join the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai At the end of one more successful week and training in Hopes selection camp in Luxembourg experts gave their evaluation. The camp has been conducted by the coaches: LI Xiaodong XIA Cheng ZHANG Yining Martin OSTERMANN Tamara BOROS and Neven CEGNAR. “Regarding the six criteria and after summarize the points I would like to inform that Maciej KUBIK of Poland Elizabet ABRAMIAN of Russia and Sophia KLEE of Germany are selected to join the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai” announced ETTU Development Manager TI&S Neven CEGNAR. The full ETTU delegation for this camp is as follows: Oost KAS VAN (NED) Adrien RASSENFOSSE (BEL) Israeli TAL (ISR) Maciej KUBIK (POL) Linda ZADEROVA (CZE) Emilija RILISKYTE (LTU) Elizabet ABRAMIAN (RUS) and Sophia KLEE (GER).
Elke SCHALL-SUSS joined DTTB coaching team
Heike AHLERT: Elke is the perfect person for this position Another member of the golden generation Elke SCHALL-SUSS joined Jörg ROSSKOPF and Jie SCHÖPP as a member of coaching stuff in DTTB. She will work in German table tennis center in Dusseldorf (DTTZ) in charge of the national residential school children training group. The two-time team’s World bronze medalist four-time European champion German Single Champion and five-time Olympian will succeed Jörg BITZIGEIO at the DTTZ who is doing 2 jobs at once at the moment – residential school kids training next to his main task as junior national girls’ coach. “I look forward to the new job. I gained valuable experience working in Hessian Table Tennis Federation” said SCHALL-SUSS who lives already for years in Dusseldorf. “I will try to show the children the way to the high-performance sports.” Heike AHLERT Vice-President of the twelfth-biggest German sports federation stated: “Elke is the perfect person for this position: She will contribute experiences as a former successful national team player as a coach at a German regional association and used to join a residential table tennis school as a child”.
Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz clinched the title in Poland
Olimpia-Unia beat Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz clinched the title in the Men’s Wschodzący Białystok Superliga in Poland. They needed three matches to take gold medals. Olimpia-Unia with players like Kaii YOSHIDA WANG Yang Patryk ZATÓWKA and Bartosz SUCH beat Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki (3:2 2:3 3:1). Kaii YOSHIDA gave hosts the perfect table tennis show and won all his games during this season in Polish Superliga. In first duel in Grodzisk Mazowiecki Olimpia-Unia won by narrow margin 3:2 but ten days later Dartom Bogoria was a little better. Tomasz REDZIMSKI with his players: OH Sang Eun Daniel GÓRAK and Paweł FERTIKOWSKI won also 3:2. In the final match in Grudziądz Yoshida overcame GÓRAK and OH Sang Eun. The third game was won by Bartosz SUCH. Unexpectedly he overcame Oh Sang Eun 3:1. It’s a fourth title for Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz in Polish Men’s Superliga.
Borussia couldn’t finish its work
The ETTU president Ronald KRAMER congratulated the winners accompanied by governor of Orenburg Region Yuri BERG and Russian Presidential aide Igor LEVITIN Borussia had a successful 2014/15 season for sure but not perfect. Bearing in mind how many problems they had in last few seasons even in this one (Patrick FRANZISKA missed four months due to injury as well as Kamal ACHANTA last few weeks) it looks like a nice score: two titles (German Cup and League) and one final (TTCLM). Nevertheless Dusseldorf`s staff is not satisfied after the 3:0 defeat from Russian Fakel Gazproma Orenburg in the second final leg of the Men’s European Champions League. „We are very disappointed” commented Borussia`s manager Andreas PREUSS. „We had a real chance to win the title. This time we had no fortune and we didn’t play our best table tennis. Congratulations to Orenburg”. Bourssia entered the ultimate MECL game with 3:1 (10:6) victory from sold out Düsseldorf’s ARAG CenterCort. Above all Patrick FRANZISKA reached the opening set against Vladimir SAMSONOV but from that moment Russian club dominated. When Dimitrij OVTCHAROV beat Timo BOLL in straight sets it was the clear sign that host team will take its third MECL crown. Of course most people would bet that Panagiotis GIONIS can overcome Alexey SMIRNOV in the third encounter but that was the day when everything went smoothly for Fakel Gazproma who fully deserved their 15th title in just 14 years of its history: 3 MECL 7 Russian League 1 ETTU Cup winner 3 Russian Cup and 1 Russian Super Cup. German champion continues as the most decorated European club (64 titles in total). „Our players couldn’t use their chances they had. So we lost. I don’t find any words at the moment. We played a great season but we couldn’t finish our work” stated his first impressions after the final Borussia`s coach Danny HEISTER. The final TTCLM match attended governor of Orenburg Region Yuri BERG Presidential aide Igor LEVITIN who was appointed in that role by Russian president Vladimir PUTIN the ETTU president Ronald KRAMER and Fakel Gazproma Orenburg president Sergey IVANOV.
Baku 2015 European Games to be screened in New Zealand
Baku 2015 has signed a broadcast deal ensuring that viewers in New Zealand will receive coverage of the inaugural European Games which will take place from 12-28 June. SKY TV in New Zealand becomes the latest in a series of non-European networks to acquire broadcast rights for the Baku 2015 competitions. The deal means that two dedicated 24-hour SKY Sport pop-up channels will carry exclusive footage of the Games across the country for the duration of the event. Mr Simon CLEGG Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015 said: “This latest agreement with SKY TV confirms the broad appeal which the European Games hold for sport fans everywhere. I am delighted to be welcoming such a respected network to our family of broadcast partners and am sure that viewers in New Zealand will enjoy the competitions next month.” Mr Richard LAST SKY’s Director of Sport added: “We’re constantly trying to offer our customers new and exciting sporting content and the addition of Baku 2015 is a fine example of bringing innovative and different programming to SKY Sport.” New Zealand joins a host of regions outside Europe which have signed up for coverage of the Games including the Americas the Arab world China India Australia and Japan.
