by Simon Daish
Beginning their contracts in January 2017 the coaching team of Peter Blomquist, Peter Andersson and Ulf Carlsson will be tasked with guiding the Swedish national team up the world table tennis ladder over the next four years.
Blomquist, Andersson and Carlsson will share the role of head coach between them with Blomquist taking responsibility for squad selection for tournaments, while Andersson and Carlsson will coach at training camps alongside leading the national team at competitive events.
Two of the highest profile tournaments on the horizon for the Swedish national team is the 2018 World Team Championships which is set to take place on home soil in the Swedish city of Halmstad and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and Peter Blomquist has laid out his hopes for the next four years:
“It is a great honor to be nominated and confirmed that we are doing something that is good. It’s an incredibly inspiring challenge and I look forward to being able to influence what they want to do with Swedish table tennis fully. The goal is for us to be the best in Europe – winning gold at the European Championships and to win a medal at the World Championships or Olympics during this four year period. Then aim for the next step and that is to challenge Asia seriously” – Peter Blomquist.
Sweden hasn’t won a medal at an Olympic Games since Jan-Ove Waldner won silver at Sydney 2000 in the Men’s Singles competition, and the country’s previous gold medal at a European Championships in the Men’s Team category was awarded 14 years back in 2002.
However, following standout performances from Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson at the Liebherr 2016 Men’s World Cup and the 2016 Swedish Open respectively levels of optimism are high in Sweden and coaches Peter Andersson and Ulf Carlsson believe that a positive future awaits the national team:
“It feels very inspiring with this mission. We three have for years struggled with each other at club level and now that we will cooperate together with the Swedish national table tennis team I think can be really good” – Peter Andersson.
“It will be exciting with this new configuration. I think it will be very exciting to continue to work with the players and try to help them continue to develop. It is the development of players which I think is the most fun and what I really enjoy” – Ulf Carlsson.
Peter Blomquist has been a coach at Swedish club Söderhamns UIF since 2000 and was appointed as the club’s head coach in 2003. Now Peter Blomquist is looking forward to taking up the position as a national team head coach and is confident that his work alongside Peter Andersson and Ulf Carlsson can lead the country to new heights:
“We three are head coaches of the largest and best training centers in Sweden and we will work together and do our utmost together to develop Swedish table tennis so it adds a very good foundation for success. There is a lot of experience and knowledge to retrieve from this solution. The strength of all of us is that we have more than most like to win, and can we “fight” together so it will be super” – Peter Blomquist.