Table tennis-via Pentecost, Erfurt becomes a table tennis capital

Saarbrücken is currently the secret capital in German table tennis. Although the 1,1th FC there was not able to move into the team finals of the German Championship. And yet the club, which is mainly known from football, made great headlines recently: against Borussia Düsseldorf, the great rival, the Champions League victory was achieved for the third time in a row. And with ex-world champion and Olympic champion Fan Zhedong, a real heavyweight was moved ashore for the near future. This is really a real sensation: 28-year-old Chinese star will play for Saarbrücken next season! And don’t withdraw to the old part as expected.

The second German capital, however, is at least called Erfurt on Pentecost. No table tennis Bundesliga club is far from being based here, but you cannot be able to rag for the second time after 2024 to organize the biggest event in this sport at club level with the “TT finals”. In the Erfurt trade fair, German championships can be admired in the individual of women and men, youth and seniors. Five tournaments in three halls, around 1000 active overall; An event that is definitely reminiscent of the traditional “table tennis of the thousands” in Berlin – only that all active clubs are bound here.

Now the trend has been going towards maximalism for a long time, even in table tennis. The world association ITTF has with »World Table Tennis« An offshoot founded that, like in tennis, scattered different -format tournaments across the globe – everything for the world rankings. Sponsorships are there, spectators are sometimes missing, unless China is not far: Then droves of teenagers flock to the halls to get their favorites. Most of the time, however, you can hear nothing but the trainer’s applauding on these tournaments.

It should be different in Erfurt. This is ensured by the sheer mass of those who appear; On the other hand, the German starry. And yet there are losses to report here too: The overstar Timo Boll focuses on the final at the teams at the end of June in Frankfurt am Main with Borussia Düsseldorf. Then he ends his career. Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Star number two, had to fit because of the intervertebral disc during the World Cup in Doha, the player of TTC Fulda-Maberzell is currently curing a short-term operation. Keyword intervertebral disc: Even with Nina Mittelham, the triple master of TTC Eastside Berlin, participation is questionable.

After all, the defending champions compete. Benedikt Duda from Bergneustadt will have to argue around the crown with Düsseldorf Dang Qiu and Patrick Franziska from Saarbrücken. For women, it will be eager to follow whether junior world champion Annett Kaufmann from Kolbermoor can connect to her successful year 2024, in which she also became German champion for the first time. The hardest competitors are Sabine Winter from Dachau, champion from 2022 and 2023 and now with anti-covering, as well as the recessed Düsseldorf woman Ying Han, master from 2018. Also to be paid to the young Berliner Josephina Neumann.

The four-day tournament over the long Pentecost weekend begins this Friday with the U19 competition and ends on Monday evening with the final. Former programs are also considered. You can be particularly excited to see how the German table tennis BUND (DTTB) – presented. Because after the weak performance of the men and the at most hopeful of the women at the World Championships in May will have to be clarified, where the causes are. And what you intend to do.

Table tennis can also be described as a popular sport in Germany. Everyone has hit a ball over a table somewhere. Only not so many of the diligent on the stone slabs and players play in the clubs at round runs with DJ events. The club level with its stylusity is only one of the problems.

In turn, the associations also suffer from the structural problems, which are now plagued by the entire sports culture of the Federal Republic. There is also a lack of functional sports halls for table tennis. And wherever they exist, they usually belong to train. And they like to close their sports halls during the holidays- for insurance and other bureaucratic reasons. And not every table tennis club can rent in exhibition halls for this time.

Of course, public relations work is also an issue. There is still a lot going on in the media. The stars have long been present on social media – and the World Association is more and more stages, which are sometimes still a bit too big. In Erfurt, the DTTB can show what it has learned.