August 27, 2010
The Youth Olympic Games, a Special Success for Table Tennis
 Table Tennis proved a popular option in Singapore, a full house for the finals Photo By: Monthly World Table Tennis |
Courtesy of ITTF There are always items that can be improved and, whatever the subject in question, the target must be to make the next better than the one that went before. Keep climbing the never ending ladder must always be encouraged. |
However reflecting on the events just concluded, the atmosphere in the table tennis arena was positive as was that of Adham Sharara, President of the International Table Tennis Federation, when interviewed by Hubert Guériau, the ITTF Media Manager for the event.
What are you feeling at the end of the Youth Olympic Games?
I think in general the whole Games have been a great success; certainly for table tennis because it is very popular in Singapore. It has been a special success with many more spectators than we expected and also the format of play was very interesting for the young players.
However, for me the most important thing is to realize that the general of the 15 or 16 year old is much more higher than two or three years ago.
Was it the competition that table tennis needed for the young players?
Fore sure, when we started with the Junior Circuit in 2003 we wanted something to come after. So we started to push for a World Junior Championships. The players could play on the World Junior Circuit then they could play the World Junior Championships. Then for the cadets, we have every year what we call the Cadet Challenge. However to keep young players motivated to look at the Olympic Games is too far ahead. To provide the Youth Olympic Games has been fantastic for us to enhance the development of players at an earlier age.
What about the team format competition?
With the team competition, the problem is that we are very limited. We were given by the IOC only 32 places for girls and 32 places for boys. With this kind of limitation is very difficult to find the right kind of format where we have the players play a great deal. So we chose to limit one player per NOC and we give, at least, a chance to 32 NOC to participate. The ITTF has more than 200 hundreds members so 32 players is very small.
It's not so easy to find a good format; for me, I can’t say that the team format is a big success but it was the only solution to give the players extra matches. However, the atmosphere was very good also. We were allowed to combine the teams, mixed by gender and nationality. A mixed event is very unusual in Olympic Games.
It was something new but it’s a good learning for the players to play with a player of another country, it’s a good learning experience. The better player can teach the weaker player. Now we have seen how it works and perhaps we modify a little bit in the future but it’s difficult with the limited amount of players.
Jacques Rogge spent about two hours in the stands with you during the last four singles matches
Table Tennis is of course also in the Olympic Games and it’s a very attractive sport; when the president came, it was when Isabelle Li Syiun from Singapore was playing in the semi-finals and she had a lot of support from the spectators.
The presentation was at the same level than as the Olympic Games, so he was very impressed and I have to say that we are a little bit lucky also to play in the best stadium here in Singapore, the national indoor stadium is beautiful. We had very good facilities, a splendid venue and also the atmosphere was very positive.
Jacques Rogge was very happy and we discussed about the effects of this event on our federation. We thought the Youth Olympic Games was as important as the Olympic Games itself; he was very happy of that.
And the Next Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing?
For sure we are very lucky that the first one was in Singapore and the country won a medal; that’s good for us.
The second one will be in China, of course the Mecca of table tennis. We are very lucky that the first two are in such countries because it helps our sport and it will give more power to negotiate for possible additional entries (maybe 32 to 48) and a better format in the team event.
Our idea is to give the players a many chances to play and also with the IOC to provide culture and an educational aspect; here we were may be one of the leading federations. We had a training camp with all the players coming in advance with many educational activities. Our education department worked very hard and now we prepare the next Youth Olympic Games.
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