5/26/2008        World Veteran Championships

He is the greatest Brazilian table tennis player of all time, no-one from that country, before or since, has been able to match the achievements of Ubiraci Podrigues da Costa; in fact no-one from any country on earth can compare.

He is the Edson Arantes do Nascimento of table tennis and he’s in Rio de Janeiro competing in the sixty to sixty four years of age group category.

Recognise the names? Well Edson Arantes do Nascimento is for many the greatest footballer ever; he is better known as Pele as for Ubiraci Podrigues da Costa?

He is Biriba, the greatest Brazilian table tennis player of all time.

Home Always São Paulo
Right handed, penhold grip, reversed rubber on one side of the racket; he has always lived in São Paulo and he was the teenage sensation of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

It was in 1961 that he caused one of the biggest sensations in the history of table tennis, one of the biggest sensations in the history of sport; comparable with Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) beat Sonny Liston for the title of World Heavyweight Champion of the World on 25th February 1964.

Defeated World Champion
He beat Rong Guotuan, the first ever Chinese Men’s Singles champion and, in 1961 the reigning Men’s Singles World champion. Not only did he beat Rong Guotan but he beat him at the World Championships in Beijing!

“Yes, that’s right; there were fifteen thousand Chinese watching”, smiled Biriba. “Suddenly I was famous in China!”

Tender Years
Furthermore, Biriba was only fifteen years old at the time. Can you imagine in 2008 a teenager from Latin America beating Wang Liqin in a Men’s Singles event in China!

Incredible Wins
However, the victory in 1961 was not the first for Biriba against celebrated opposition. “In 1958 we played Japan in an international match in São Paulo”, reflected Biriba. “I beat both Toshiaki Tanaka and Ichiro Ogimura.”

Biriba spoke in a most modest manner but let us put that performance into perspective.

The match was played in July, in June of that year he celebrated his thirteenth birthday; furthermore, Toshiaki Tanaka was the reigning World champion and the man he had beaten in the final the previous year was Ichiro Ogimura!

Superhuman
Now a thirteen year old from anywhere in the world or event planet Mars with superhuman powers beating Wang Liqin and Ma Lin in 2008 is beyond belief. Even the most extravagant comic book writer would not dare to make such a suggestion!

Dortmund 1959
One year later, Biriba played in his first World Championships in Dortmund and he recorded a notable scalp; he beat Romania’s Radu Negulescu, the man who in the 1960s was to perfect the so called “under the table serves” where the non playing hand virtually rested on the floor and the ball was thrown directly on to the racket, contact was made when the ball was rising.

At thirteen Biriba was a problem for the best in the world and by then he’d been playing for seven years. “I started when I was six years old and stopped when I was twenty-one; I started again at the age of twenty-nine, just for fun, now I play one day a week.”

Third Championships
It is his third World Veteran Championships; he played in Lillehammer in 1996 and two years ago in Bremen.

“Certainly, it’s wonderful, most interesting, friendly”, said Biriba. “There’s not the tension of the main World Championships, I love every minute.”

Gracious
A most modest man, a very courteous human being, I thanked him for his time. “No!” he said. “Thank you for giving your time; it was a great pleasure to talk to you.”

Now, I’m the editor; so I have the last word; it was a pleasure to interview you, a great privilege to once again spend time with a true legend of table tennis, a true gentleman.