WORLD TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP - ZAGREB 2007

Motif: Table Tennis Table Zagreb is going to host the World Table Tennis Championship from 21 to 29 May, 2007. This is the second big competition in this sport that will be organized by the City of Zagreb following the European Championship in 2002. The great hall of the Zagreb Sports Centre is to host top masters of this sport, and the majority of them – which is quite logical – will be gathered under the Chinese national flag. Fifty days before the beginning of the World Table Tennis Championship in Zagreb Croatia managed to score a big point. As a matter of fact, in the course of the European championship in Belgrade the Croatian table tennis players won the team gold medal (there is no team competition at the world championships). The team members were: Zoran Primorac, Roko Tošić, Tan RuiWu, Dado Šurbek and Andrej Gaćina. The addition to this silver medal (in the finals the Germans were better than the Croatian team) was another one: the Croatian Chinese RuiWu in the doubles competition with the Pole Blaszczyk also won the silver medal. The new successes have automatically caused a new wave of interest for table tennis, and this interest, on the other hand, is a guarantee that this world championship will eventually be successful. Apart from the supporters who should be a quality decoration of the whole competition, another step forward to these interesting days should definitely be made by the competitors themselves. Here, of course, we refer to the Chinese. Possibly in no other sport in the world do we find such domination of one nation as we do in the case of the Chinese who have almost “privatized” table tennis. Billions of them, starting from the very early youth, merge with the bat and ball, so it is no wonder that they systematically bring to the surface some ten or twenty table tennis players every year qualified for the Olympic and world gold medals. If we look at the rank list of both competitions it is quite clear that in Zagreb they will also be in hot pursuit of all the six individual singles medals. Among the table tennis players four Chinese are ranked among the first six – the two “intruders” are the third-placed German Timo Boll and the six-placed Vladimir Samsonov. Among the girls there is a flood of Chinese –all of them ranked in the first five positions. The German Boll is actually the greatest European trump, and one of the causes of apprehension for the Chinese is the already mentioned Polish-Croatian double Blaszczyk and RuiWu who could win a medal in the doubles competition. A few years ago the Croatian woman player Tamara Boroš represented a kind of balance between China and the rest of the world though presently she is far from being at the top. Neuronitis (damage to the ear and problems with the balance) have kept Tamara Boroš away from the top and her appearance this time will not be accompanied by the pursuit of a medal. There is probably going to be an even quieter atmosphere regarding the appearance of other Croatian women table tennis players: Sandra Paović, Kornelija Vajda, Andreja Bakula... On the other hand the men table tennis players at the moment have a much better rating, and we shall be with Zoran Primorac supporting him with greatest zest. Zoran Primorac’s participation at the Zagreb competition, combined with the Olympic Games in Beijing, will be the last competition in his great career in the course of which he has won 21 medals. Another magnet for the public, along with Primorac, will be the participation of Roko Tošić, RuiWu, Dado Šurbek and others. In any case, interesting and high quality duels are waiting for us, and table tennis by itself guarantees speed, great changes, tenseness, suspense. And everybody is going to be engaged in hot pursuit of the Chinese. Stipe Karadžole