by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Named a pre-selection training came, one from which an elite group of players will be selected, the attendance in terms of numbers was most impressive.

A total of 54 player, 32 boys and 22 girls were present; many with their national coaches.

Proceedings were directed by Neven Cegnar, the Development Officer for the European Table Tennis Union.

Notably present from the city in a coaching role was Ferenc Karsai; in the early 1990s, he was the coach for the local club and a very successful club, Zolt Mezo Kiskunfelegyhaza. They competed in the Europe Club Cup of Champions, the forerunner of the European Champions League.

Later, of course, Ferenc Karsai moved to assume the role of Head Coach of the Austrian Table Tennis Federation; his claim to fame being that he guided Wener Schlager to Men’s Singles gold at the Liebherr 2003 World Championships.

In addition to Ferenc Karsai, Attila Halmai, Provas Mondal and Aleksey Yefremov were the principal coaches.