by Olalekan Okusan, ITTF Member Relations Media Officer
The memory of the Liebherr 2019 World Championships in Budapest is still fresh in the mind of those that witnessed an electrifying atmosphere in the Hungexpo.
Significantly, Roland Natran, HTTA President, believes there is still further scope in terms of staging globally accepted tournaments; currently taking place, the first WTT Contender Series tournament to be staged in Europe, endorses ambitions.
Roland Natran explained.
“It is an honour and a great challenge at the same time, as we are not over the pandemic yet. It is a pleasure for us that our event is the first official WTT tournament in Europe and we would like to continue at the forefront in the relaunch of sport’s life.
We hope that our efforts serve as motivation for other countries, thus strengthening the international community of the sport.
It is important to organise a special event not only for Hungarian table tennis but also for the image of the whole country. For young people, it can be an additional motivation when the biggest stars in the sport visit Hungary, but in addition to broadening our base in the age categories; the number of table tennis fans is also constantly growing.
Additional to the positive economic aspects and effects, we expect an increase in the number of registered athletes. Our efforts are in line with the ideas of the Hungarian government; these events play a very important role in the positive perception of our country.
In the case of special events, the biggest challenge is definitely solving the facility situation, as in 2019 during the World Championships; the floor area of the competition was more than 10,000 square metres. It was also a huge task to accommodate and solve the logistics of 600 athletes and a total of 1,000 accredited participants from more than 130 countries.
From the second half of 2020, organising an event is a huge task as we have to cope with all the different conditions and obligations resulting from the Covid-19 situation.
We do not want to stand out as teachers, as other national federations have huge experience and excellent professionals. We want to be at the forefront of table tennis by using our already existing opportunities and our own efforts, if others are interested in our experiences and opinions, we, of course, will share them.
However, if one message should be sent, then it is to be ready for learning new lessons from table tennis and using this knowledge with the best effort for the favour of table tennis. Shortly: focus shall be kept on solutions rather than obstacles.
After the European Championships in 2016 and the World Championships in 2019, HTTA still plans to host the most prestigious sporting events for table tennis. We would really love the most prestigious event of the new competition series, the WTT Grand Smash to be held in Hungary in the near future, but we are also thinking about hosting the World Youth Championships and the World Youth Festival as well.
We love table tennis; therefore, we love World Championships, so definitely after a few years, we would really love to welcome the whole table tennis family again in Budapest.”
The Hungarian government is the pillar behind most of the successes recorded by HTTA, Natran described this as the motivating factor.
He acknowledged the support of sponsors like Joola, Miskolcsi Likőrgyár Zrt., Porsche Hungária Kft. and Ricoh Hungary Kft.