MUSCAT, MARCH 24 - The Arab region needs more professional players to make a break into the top 20 rankings and win titles at the ITTF world events, according to Arab Table Tennis Union (ATTU) chairman Khalid al Mohannadi.
“Locally the players are competent enough. But when it comes to the international level, many Arab players are not able to withstand the expertise of professional players from Asia and Europe,” Khalid told a press conference in Muscat attended by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) president Thomas Weikert and ITTF CEO Steve Dainton along with Abdullah Bamakhalef, ATTU vice-president and Oman Table Tennis Committee (OTTC) chairman.
“The only way to make improvement from the current condition is to have more professional players and professional approach towards practicing and learning table tennis,” Khalid said.
The ITTF president said currently the ITTF is focusing on the Arab region and especially Oman to develop the game.
“We are in a process to develop the game in Arab region. Oman in particular has improved a lot compared to four years before.”
“Oman are now capable of hosting big international tournaments and has bid for the Veterans World Championships also. This shows the organising capability and the interest for the sport in of the country,” Weikert said.
Oman, Malaysia and South Korea are the three existing bidders for the 21st World Veteran Table Tennis Championships in 2022.
Weikert said the Sultanate government has promised its support for the bid when he met Shaikh Saad bin Mohammed al Saadi, Minister of Sports Affairs, recently.
The German official also expressed his satisfaction with the proposed venue for the Worlds Veterans, the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.
GLOBAL SPORT STATUS
The ITTF CEO said there will be a dedicated effort in 2021 to incorporate many exciting changes to the format of several tournament under the ITTF calendar.
“In 2021, the ITTF will be able to restructure its tournaments as many of the commercial contracts will end in 2020,” Steve Dainton from Australia said.
“Our main effort will be to raise the profile of table tennis as a real global sport by some innovative and structural changes in to the game,” Dainton maintained.
“The initial focus will be on the Olympic format of the sport. This will be done in coordination with the International Olympic Council (IOC),” he added.
Dainton said the 2021 World TT Finals will see a new territory for the sport.
Morocco (Agadir) and United States (Houston) have been short-listed for the 2021 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals. The only previous occasion that neither Asia nor Europe staged the World Championships was back in 1939 when Cairo, Egypt, was the host city.
“This will be a rare occasion when the sport is moving from its traditional areas to new regions. We will try to make such moves frequently to enhance the reach of TT across the globe,” he added.
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