The majority of players at The European Veterans Championships in Sandefjord have travelled from abroad some further than others. The participants who have travelled the furthest though are our Israeli friends from the southernmost member state of the ETTU. 20 players from Israel participate in Sandefjord.
The distance from the capital Jerusalem to Sandefjord is some 5 000 kilometers.
The Jewish contribution to table tennis is enormous. The first President of the International Table Tennis Federation the founder in fact was Jewish -Ivor Montagu. So were most of the top players in the world from the 1920s until the 60s. The likes of Viktor BARNA Alojzy EHRLICH Richard BERGMANN Ruth AARONS and Angelica ROZEANU were all Jewish and completely dominated international table tennis for so many years winning gold medals over and over again.
At the Ping Pong Diplomacy that made diplomatic relations between USA and China possible an important figure was the American table tennis player Glenn COWAN who was also Jewish.
When the state of Israel was founded in 1948 the Israeli government decided that one of the four sports they wanted to promote was table tennis due to its lack of aggressiveness.
The Israeli participants in the European Veterans Championships in Sandefjord Norway enjoyed their time and we look forward to meet the players from the southernmost table tennis federation in the European Table Tennis Union at the next championships.
