Eurokids had a great experience at the 2011 GAC GROUP World Table Tennis Championship
The young players from the Eurokids Programme had a great experience at the 2011 GAC GROUP World Table Tennis Championships. They had a chance to play with the top players of the table tennis circuit. The main table tennis event is being played at the Ahoy
Arena Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The young players got a chance to look around the city and to watch the matches on the evening of May 11, 2011. The organisers of the World Championship have placed table tennis tables, Trade Stands of the Liebherr ITTF Museum on display near the venue.
There are a total of 45 players on the Eurokids' squad.
There are 23 boys and 22 girls from different countries of Europe. The Eurokids Programme is a joint initiative of the European Table Tennis Union and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Development Programme. ITTF have also sent top coaches
along with the kids to develop the sport among the young players.
The Eurokids Programme is being initiated for smaller countries of Europe, so that the young paddlers can be trained. Countries like Kosovo, which is not recognised by any table tennis federation and also don’t have any national table tennis federation,
are getting major boast with such programmes.
The ITTF former Projects Director, Lila de Soysa said, “In fact the International Table Tennis Federation was the first International Federation to recognise Kosiovo.”
Lila de Soysa along with Branka Batinic from Croatia and Elena Sebe from Romania are playing a key role in the development of the young kids in the continent. They also held special activities for the kids at Ahoy.
The young players took oath at the start of the day. The head coach of the Eurokids Programme, Peter Karlsson was also present along the kids at the oath taking. The young kids saw the matches at the main Ahoy arena. Later they got a chance to play with
the top players of the circuit.
The kids had a great experience, while they played against Vladimir Samsonov, Timo Boll, Dimitrj Ovtcharov, Andrei Filimon, Tamara Boros, Daniela Dodean, Elizabeta Samara, Bernadette Szocs, plus those from an earlier era like Csilla Batorfi and Valentina
Popova. The young 10 or 11-year-old kids will never forget the experience which they have learned.
Lila de Soysa said, “In Romania they held a tournament to decide who would come here, Also, we will be organsing a tournament and the best four will go the Werner Schlager Academy in June for the ITTF Hopes Challenge.”
The young players are a valuable asset of the table tennis circuit. They are the future of the sport and these players will be joined by five players from Shanghai for a join-training session.
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