After the final battles at the Men’s Singles Event gold medalist ZHANG Jike of China, silver medalist WANG Hao and bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany held press conference. Since table tennis was introduced at the Olympic Games, Dimitrij OVTCHA,

The Team’s Event already started. In first matches in the Round of 16 in Women’s Teams Event, all four Asian teams prevailed. Brazil suffered by the hands of Korea Republic in straight matches. Singapore’s FENG Tianwei, WANG Yuegu and LI Jiawei overcame L,

First time after Swede Jan Ove WALDNER won silver at the Olympic Games in Sydney in Singles Event, Europe had a representative at the medal rostrum, at biggest of all competition. In the match for the bronze medal just a few hours after the defeat in semi,

In tomorrow’s semi finals in the Men’s Singles Event at the London Olympic Games ZHANG Jike of China will meet Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany, whilst in other penultimate stage match WANG Hao will play against CHUANG Chih – Yuan of Taipei. ZHANG Jike overc,

LI Xiaoxia of China, runner up at last World Championships in Singles Event and top ranked player at the World Rankings, clinched the gold medal at the Olympic Games today in ExCel Arena in London. LI overcame her compatriot and top seed DING Ning of Chin,

The launch of Ping! London on Friday marked the beginning of a third successive year for the successful Ping! initiative which is once again hitting the streets of cities all across the UK. This year’s Ping! has taken on a special mantle with the Olympic , The launch of Ping! London on Friday marked the beginning of a third successive year for the successful Ping! initiative which is once again hitting the streets of cities all across the UK. This year’s Ping! has taken on a special mantle with the Olympic and Paralympic Games soon to grace the capital with the world’s elite sportsmen and women arriving later on this summer. It seemed for a while as though ‘summer’ was not on the cards as blustery winds and lashing rain pelted the Finsbury Avenue Square where Ping! London was beginning it’s month-long festival of table tennis. However, the plucky ping pong players battled through and were eventually rewarded with scorching sunshine, sumptuous drinks and a hat-full of ping pong entertainment. Phil SMITH, Director of Sport at Sport England said: “In 2005 when Sebastien COE went to Singapore with the team to present the London 2012 Olympic bid we promised to do one thing in particular, which was to increase the number of people playing sport in this country. At the moment that’s going quite well and in table tennis that’s going very well indeed. In the last four years the number of people playing table tennis regularly in this country has almost doubled and in the large part it’s due to this project. We’re hoping that it will be the direct contribution to the London 2012 Olympic leagacy. So anybody who is playing today, for the rest of this week, anybody who picks up a bat for the rest of this year, don’t let anybody tell you that you have not seen the legacy of the London Games because you are in it and this is it.” Fifty-one Ping! tables will be springing up across the capital in locations from Victoria Park to Soho Square with events, master classes and skill sessions taking place throughout July. Richard YULE, Chief Executive of the English Table Tennis Association, was appreciative of all the hard work that had gone on behind-the-scenes to get the project underway: “Thanks go to Colette and her team at Sing London for bringing their unique creative energy to this project. This is something that’s completely different in terms of normal sports development projects but we’re delighted to be a part of it. This would not have been possible without the financial support from Sport England to enable us to actually scale up the project to reach thousands and thousands of people. Phil SMITH, congratulations on having the foresight and the courage to support this project will the level of funding that you have done. It wouldn’t have happened without your support.”* Ping! is truly an event for everyone with 700 tables being rolled out in Bristol, Liverpool, Brighton, Sheffield, Leicester, the New Forest and the capital itself. It’s broad spectrum of patrons covers young, old, abled, disabled, rich and poor alike. (by Russell MOORE)  

The second and most important part in preparing of Greek athletes for the Olympic Games begins tomorrow evening in Karpenisi. The qualifiers for the Men’ s singles event at the Olympic tournament Kallinikos KREANGA and Panagiotis GIONIS, with the members , The second and most important part in preparing of Greek athletes for the Olympic Games begins tomorrow evening in Karpenisi. The qualifiers for the Men’ s singles event at the Olympic tournament Kallinikos KREANGA and Panagiotis GIONIS, with the members of the national team Kostas PAPAGEORGIOU, Kostas LAGOGIANNIS and Tasos RINIOTIS will be together until July 10 at joint training sessions with five foreign champions. They will have the strong and quality work in the excellent facilities of the hotel “Montana”. On Monday morning the team will be strengthened by Serbian champions Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC, Marko JEVTOVIC (coming Sunday night in Athens) and from Sunday evening Egyptians Lasin El SAID, Omar ASAR and Ahmed SALEH (the arrival in Greece scheduled for tomorrow at noon). The Greek national coach Kostas VATSAKLIS spoke on a special significance of the camp. “We pass to the second stage of preparation and go for intensive work in Karpenisi with five foreign players. Both Serbs, and the three Egyptians are qualifiers for the Olympic Games, therefore, they have high motivation and potential for a serious workout. The facilities are excellent; combined with the climate will allow us to do quality work for ten days. In the first part we had work more on strength and fitness, now the burden will fall mainly on tactics: finishes points, service, games, etc, but of course we will have sessions in fitness”, said federal technician, who went one day before in Karpenisi with physiotherapist of national teams Naim AKROUT in order to prepare the space. Kostas VATSAKLIS explained that was difficult to arrange a coaching camp with these excellent possibilities due to financial problems of the federation. “To place this camp took massive and concerted efforts on the part of the Greek federation and from my own. I said this because I come in contact with the Egyptians and with the Serbs during World Qualification Tournament in Qatar especially for this issue. The Egyptians shoved the interest by themselves and asked if we can organize preparatory gathering again remembering previous useful experience in Greece. Both sides eventually responded with pleasure to our proposal for a joint 10-day preparation. It should be noted that the cost of participation is entirely their own, the Greek federation does not cover anything.” Few days before, the two Serbs athletes took part in a training camp in Maribor, Slovenia, while the Egyptians did test in the tournament in Morocco. Serbs come to Greece with the whole team. With the athletes will be the federal coach Boris VUKELIC and the responsible for the fitness and physical therapy Nemanja VUKOV and Dragana PERIC- GOLIN, respectively. KARAKASEVIC and JEVTOVIC will participate in singles of the Olympic Games. From the foreign athletes in Karpenisi the presence that stands out is that of course Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC current “bronze” European champion in singles and men’s doubles, former European champion in doubles mixed, a great name, who has taken part in three Olympics (1996, 2004, 2008). The mission of the Egyptian led the federal technical Metzent ASUR. Egypt, who participated in coaching camp in Loutraki at 2003, a year before the Olympic tournament in Athens, will be present in London in a singles and team event. ASAR and LASIN will play in both events, while SALEH has been selected to complete the trio for the team. (by G. FAKAROS) Photo: Kalinikos KREANGA and Panagiotis GIONIS