I arrived to the “Round Hall” as it is called in Budapest to find the parking lot chockfull of cars. What? For a retirement celebration? “No”, my Ukrainian-cum-Hungarian speedy driver said, “The cars are for the clothes and shoes market”. But wait a minute; with my poor understanding of Hungarian I could clearly see that the sign said that the market closed at 5 p.m. We are way past 5 p.m., so this must be for Csilla Batorfi. It was.
Judit Farago had arranged for me to have an interview with the local TV, so in my best hairdo I was ready for it. But where do we park? “In the VIP section of course” the enormous muscular guard told us. And at that moment I saw Judit with the TV interview crew looking for me. “Step inside” the interviewer said, “It’s better inside”. As I stepped into the so-called Round Hall, I understood why it has that name. It’s round. And it’s a Hall. The hall has a 2,000-seat capacity. Looking around I could see about 500 people settling in their places and maybe another 50 or so finding their VIP seats on the main floor where neatly draped tables with refreshments were ready for the VIPs. “Nice” I was thinking, this is some affair. Then the TV interview started. As usual, I expressed my thanks to all concerned politely, but I also wholeheartedly praised the Hungarian TTA for this initiative and I finally wished Csilla Batorfi all the best of luck. The interview was about a 3-5 minute stint. Not too long, but long enough for the spectators to swell to about 1,000 at half full-house capacity. This is getting serious. How serious? Well, next I saw the State Secretary of Sport, the Secretary General of the HOC, the President of the International Weightlifting Federation my good friend Tamas Ajan, a Deputy Minister from China, the Chinese Ambassador, ETTU President, etc., etc. This is really getting serious.
The Hungarian TTA and the Chinese TTA had agreed to have a women’s challenge match between the current European Champions and the World Champions. This was a great idea and the enthusiastic Chinese participated with their best women’s team on its way back from Magdeburg. So, of course, as usual, a good contingent of Chinese supporters, flags and all, started to fill in some of the remaining seats. By the time I noticed Jonyer and Gergely and an array of past Hungarian Champions, including self-portrait photographer extraordinaire, the one and only Földy, I could see that not many seats were left unoccupied. People, people and more people just poured into the Round Hall filling all the seats, VIP sections, special tribunes, and the VVIP balcony. It was a full house. And get this, hold on to your chair, 3 hours of live TV coverage on the Hungarian sports channel, the same channel that is now transmitting ITTF Pro Tour events. Yes, 3 hours, I do mean three hours, covering the match, the festivities, many interviews, the gift presentations and all the fanfare surrounding this evening. Tamasu Butterfly, the Hungarian Lottery Company and Wink (a Hungarian-Chinese importing company) must have been ecstatic as the main sponsors of the event. This was a one million dollar promotion for our sport in Hungary, at least, with 3 hours of TV coverage! I was amazed. Some of that time, about 3 additional minutes were given to the ITTF President to express his feelings about this evening. They called me up on stage after Csilla received a 7-minute standing ovation that brought tears to everyone’s eyes, including this tough ITTF President. So, I shied away from doing the interview in my poor-accented Hungarian, and reverted to the safety of a reliable professional translator. In my live TV speech, I thanked all concerned, and especially thanked the Croatians Zoran Primorac and Tamara Boros who came especially to share in the celebrations but also participated in a most entertaining exhibition doubles match featuring Batorfi/Toth against Primorac/Boros. Great stuff, the crowd loved it.
Well, my friends, what can I say, even the famous Zoltan Berczik was there. That should say it all. A great initiative of the Hungarian TTA of which its President seemed extremely happy and thankful for the spectacular full-house turn out. I must express my admiration and thanks to the staff of the Hungarian TTA under the leadership of its Technical Director and Vice-President, Jozsef Juhos for staging a FIRST CLASS show with professional animators live on TV. And of course we should not forget the protagonist of the evening, Csilla Batorfi who bowed to her fans and teammates over and over again as they bid her farewell and good luck.
The Hungarian TTA is going to announce that it will have another GALA in 2009 to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Men’s Team GOLD Medal at the 1979 World Championships in Pyongyang. I can’t wait to see how the golden trio of Jonyer-Klampar-Gergely and their coach Berczik will be celebrated. So, if you intend to celebrate one of your Champions, take it from me, before you do, contact the good folks at the Hungarian TTA to get some pointers, and you may just get a taste of some of those great Hungarian cakes. Watch out!
Many thanks to Judit Farago for inviting me to this memorable evening.
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