(ATR)Countries across the globe are celebrating the first ever World Table Tennis Day.
"We think this World Table Tennis Day should be a trigger," Leandro Olvech, ITTF development director, tells Around the Rings.
Olvech adds that the ITTF hopes the event will draw attention to table tennis year-round.
The event purposely coincides with the second International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, Olvech explains.
Cities including Amman, Berlin, Bombay, London, Manchester, New York City, Paris, Tehran and Zurich are using various table tennis programs to attract more people to the sport while promoting peace and development.
Olvech discusses his expectations for the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, taking place April 26-May 3 in Suzhou, China, and the biggest challenge for the sport on the road to Rio 2016.
For general comments or questions,click here.
Photos: Getty Images
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics isAroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
