One of the main objectives of the project is to support female match officials on their umpire career and to give them possibilities to learn outside their own country. WTT Youth Contender Linz was the first event which gave two places for candidates of this project. Iva VUJOVIC from Montenegro and Milena UCHMANOWICZ from Poland are both umpires who are aiming to become International Umpire. They applied through the ETTU project “Development of Female Match Officials” for this event.
Iva and Milena did not only umpire in Linz but they also had the chance to attend the Advanced Umpires Training (AUT) and worked together with a lot of experienced umpires.
“I used to play table tennis for more than 10 years although I gave up as I got more and more busy with school. However as I wanted to “keep in contact” with this sport I decided to become an umpire. I officially started umpiring in the 2017. The experience I got from umpiring on the WTT Youth Contender in Linz was extraordinary. I met so many people and everyone was really kind and eager to help me. I learnt a lot of new things as well and I believe my umpiring skills have become even better. Furthermore I got extremely motivated and currently can’t wait to take another step in my career.I’m really eager to improve my skills even further and finally become someone who can umpire the greatest players in the world ” said Iva VUJOVIC.
