5/15/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

It is not easy to transform home advantage into good results at the table. At last weekend’s Final World Qualification Tournament, only one Hungarian player was entirely happy.

For Janos Jakab, twenty-one years of age, cheering from the numerous enthusiastic fans in the Round Hall in Budapest was an advantage. “I was shocked by this result, I did not expect this”, he said about his tenth place finish.

 5/14/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

The latest rankings from Budapest contain three mistakes. The players affected are Kou Lei and Petr Korbel as well as Oksana Fadeeva, Petra Lovas, Eva Odorova and Dana Hadacova.
The changes have no influence on the Olympic qualification; all of the above mentioned players are qualified for the Olympic Singles event to be held in Beijing, China in August 2008.

 5/11/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

On the last day of the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Budapest, the match for the third ranking was crucial for the qualification of the female Olympic Team event.
Spain’s Shen Yanfei overcame in five games Georgina Pota from Hungary.

 5/11/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

All of the four top seeded male players qualified for the semi-finals on Sunday 11th May, the last day of the Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament in the Hungarian capital Budapest.

Taipei’s Chiang Peng-Lung, Hong Kong’s Cheung Yuk, Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive and Romania’s Adrian Crisan all fulfilled their duties.

The latter, however, was in real danger against Ahmed Ali Saleh. Crisan had to save not less than five match points against the twenty-eight year old Egyptian.

 5/11/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

Only the best three men and three women in Budapest will be taken into account for the selection of the sixteen teams qualified for the Olympic team event.

Thus especially those nations with only one player qualified so far have to reach a top three place at the final day of the qualification tournament in the Hungarian capital.

With Tie Yana and Lin Ling from Hong Kong as well as Georgina Pota from Hungary and Shen Yanfei from Spain, all top seeded reached the semi-finals.

 5/10/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

It was a hard work for Trinko Keen until he shouted with glee. After a seven games win over Italy’s Mihai Bobocica, the Dutch has now reached for sure a place within the top eight at the tournament of the last chance.

Other top seeded players could not prevail. Serbia’s Aleksandar Karakasevic lost against an unleashed Egyptian Ahmed Ali Saleh. It was the fifth win in a row for Saleh in Budapest, who will hear on Sunday night if he can play the Olympic Singles event for certain.

 5/10/2008 2008 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament

The Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) invited a number of ITTF officials present at the Final World Qualification Tournament in Budapest to an official dinner.