National Championships
Due to the present devastating Pandemic most of the European National Associations are unable to organise the National Championships on this weekend (January 30th and 31st) as it was planned in calendar.
Hungary also postponed the Championships and the date is still unknown. The Championships in Russia is also posponed to April. On the other side France already set the date.
“Our National Championships will take place 28/ 30 May 2021 in Cesson Sévigné Bretagne ” said Claude BERGERET from Fédération Française de Tennis de Table.
The good news is that the competition Pro A and Pro B Men and Women is on.
“Concerning our leagues only ProA and ProB men and women are going. They are on with a lot of problems dates changing etc… but is going on…” said BERGERET.” Concerning our players the FFTT has nominated the 2 women players to compete at the World Olympic Qualification in Doha mid of March Prithika PAVADE and Jianan YUAN. Our men are already qualified.”
President of the Table Tennis Federation of Latvia Ina JOZEPSONE informed us about the current situation in the Association.
‘Unfortunately it is not possible to organize the Latvian Individuals Championships at the end of January. We hope to organize it in June. Now we have the possibility to organize a training process only for national players in different age groups. This is more than nothing but not enough. We are planning to participate with some players at the WOSQ in Doha and EOSQ in Portugal.”
In Greece the sport remains in lockdown. It is already three months pass without any activity and in the best case scenario the Leagues will start again in March. At the moment the Greek federation can not make any plans and they are waiting for the return of trainings first.
Only the athletes of the national teams continue the practice many of them are competing in clubs top national category Championships on Europe (Bundesliga Poland Super Liga A1 of Italy) and the first and big goal of the year is the Olympic Qualifications in April in Lisbon.
In Moldova the new date is still unknown.
“Under the quarantine measures we are unable to organise the Championships. It is always very big event and in this situation it is impossible to have so many players under same roof for long period. We are looking for some later date ” explained Vladimir SEMIPEADNII from Moldova’s Federation.
Fédération Royale Belge de Tennis de Table President Jean-Michel MUREAU stated that the Event is rescheduled for spring.
“In January it was impossible to organise the national championships but for the “A” players it will be planned in April. For the rest until today everything has stopped ” said President MUREAU.
Israel Table Tennis Association CEO Pavel LISOVTSEV informed us that Israel is planning to host the national championships from March 30th to April 2nd.
“National leagues have been stopped by a lockdown after 3 rounds ” added LISOVTSEV.
Slovenia planned to have the National Championship at the beginning of the March but since the many changes in the calendar it is impossible now
“Due the changes in the ITTF calendar we are forced to change the date. We do not want to have the competition during the Qatar – Doha WTT Contender and WTT Star Contender Events. Our best players will play there and our intention is to have them present on national events for better promotion of the sport. It will be difficult to set the new date since they are engage in national leagues in Italy Germany and Austria. So far before the end of March is very difficult ” said Danijel ŠARLAH from Slovenia’s Table Tennis Association.
In Czech Republic National Federation is also faced with the procrastination.
“The Czech Republic Championship will not take place at the end of January. It has been postponed and the scheduled date is in second quarter of the year. It will be played at the National Training Centre in Havířov ” stated Association’s spokeman Jaroslav ODSTRCILIK.” The top men’s competition is currently underway; the women’s competition is scheduled to restart on 5 February. All other amateur competitions cannot be played due to COVID-19 restrictions.”
The management of the Association approved the nomination for the Olympic qualification: Pavel ŠIRUČEK Tomáš POLANSKÝ (European qualification) Lubomír JANČAŘÍK (World qualification) Hana MATELOVÁ and Karin ADÁMKOVÁ.
“Men have trainings in their clubs in Poland and Germany women work together at the National Training Centre in Havířov. This week an international women’s camp is taking place with Neven CEGNAR as one of the coaches.”
Norges Bordtennisforbund’s CEO Ghassan CHAER said: “We do not have the opportunity to arrange the National Championship which was to be held in March as planned in the calendar. New date is set for June 12-13 in Bergen. Our national league and national selections are postponed until the month of May.”
Finnish TTA Secretary General Mika RÄSÄNEN stated: “Finland cannot organize National Championships at the end of January. New dates are not decided yet. We also cannot organize any other competitions or League matches at moment.”
In Netherlands the National Championships is posponed to 12th and 13th June. In Turkey the events are also posponed and the competition will commence with League matches in March.
