Representatives of some of Europe’s strongest veterans countries met members of the ETTU Veterans Committee to discuss the possibility of a future European Veterans Team Championship
Chairman of the ETTU Veterans Committee Dr Zdenko KRIZ invited the representatives to an informal ‘brain storming’ session at the European Veterans Table Tennis Championship currently taking place in Tampere Finland.
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He explained the purpose of the meeting was to invite the views of the representatives of the veterans’ table tennis societies in Europe regarding the desirability and feasibility of holding European Team Championships in the future. Those views would be taken into account and the ETTU Veterans Committee would prepare a report and recommendations for the ETTU Executive Committee. The mood of the meeting was that the players and veterans society would welcome the principle of a European Team Championships given the practicalities and logistics of staging an event were manageable.
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There was a general consensus that if it took place it should be linked to the European Veterans Championships. This would mean extending the event by a number of days and possibly losing the mid-week free day. This would of course have financial and administrative issues for organisers and players. A number of ways the team format could operate were considered including two aside teams with singles and a doubles starting in groups then proceeding to knock outs.
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The membership of the teams would also need to be clearly defined and the preferred recommendation following discussion was that the players should be from the same country but not necessarily selected by their association. Dr Zdenko KRIZ concluded by thanking the participants and saying that he felt it had been a very positive meeting with a general consensus that team events should be on the agenda in the future also the precise detail needed further consideration.
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The ETTU Veterans Committee will now make a series of recommendations to the Executive of the ETTU. Any team event is not likely to occur before 2019
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By Susie HUGHES
