A bad sign for Europe is the fact that among all the players that managed to survive Pre-rounds (it means among the better half of participating players), there were only one girl under 18 years of age, and three men plus one girl eligible for Under 21. Among qualified women there were several Chinese players like Tian (37, Croatia), Xian (34, France), Li (25, Austria), Tan (38, Italy), among men there were already mentioned He Zhiwen (50!, Spain) as well as new star (!?) Pattantyus (33, Hungary), Jevtovic (25) from Serbia, a player from II. French League. Zwickl from Hungary, Number 200 in the World ranking list was one of biggest surprises - but he is not a player with future, he is 28, his up to now biggest success was winning of European cadet championships in 1999, he is now finishing his studies. Europe would like to challenge China but European youth has more and more difficulties to win against players from Egypt, India, Brazil, the interspaces to best Asian teams becomes bigger and bigger. European hopes rest only on Germany in men and France in boys competition - in women teams Netherlands, several years in the row European champion, with their two older Chinese players and former Russian player Timina (43!) can not be regarded as a team with bright future!

Luck is needed!
To have luck in the draw was rather important - in the knock out rounds there were matches between players which were on positions Nr. 26 and Nr. 43 in World ranking list and on the other side between players on positions Nr. 221 and Nr. 157!! At the end placement on the ranking list was at least among the men not deciding - qualified were Zwickl (Nr. 200), Jevtovic (Nr. 157), Pattantyus (Nr. 133), not qualified were Apolonia (Nr. 46), Keinath (Nr. 51), Gacina (Nr. 58)! The unluckiest player was for sure Tiago Apolonia - short before direct places through World ranking list were given he was far above the line. In few weeks before the final day he managed to loose in first round on five tournaments in a row, lost so many ranking list points and fall one place below the line! For him it would have been enough if he would not have played only one of these 5 tournaments. It would have been as well enough if he would have won in the last tournament only one match, but he lost again in first round against Bentsen, after leading 3:2 and 9:5, and having at 10:7 three match balls in the decider! So was Apolonia forced to play qualifications in Luxemburg, but he was unlucky again. He was injured and not able to play World Championships in Dortmund prior to qualifications in Luxemburg. Without training he did not make it in Luxemburg, now he must hope to have better luck in Doha!

Hungarian player Pattantyus, Nr. 133 in World ranking list and 33 years old became last year again national team player. As a young player he was in 1999 member of Hungarian national selection, but then as player without future not nominated into selection anymore and became now the new Hungarian hero! Pattantyus almost managed to win the title of unluckiest player in front of Apolonia - he did play surprisingly well, managed to come already the first final day into first finals, the winner of this match was qualifier for London. He lost it, managed to play the second final day again in finals, lost again, played the third final day again in finals, lost again. After this third final he got one more chance - he played against the loser of the other final for the last remaining place for London and finally he managed to win and was at last qualified for London! The title of unluckiest player remained so in the hands of Apolonia!

Umpires stories
On international events there are seldom no problems between the players and coaches on one side and umpires from the other side. It was good that this time there were not many discussions about services - either have all the players served according to the rules or the umpires were not so strictly, anyway there were less services then usual found illegal. Of course there were again dubious situations as in one game from Lundquist - without warning his service at 9:9 was found illegal and the point went to his opponent. The service looked from the side as correct, Lundquist in addition almost lost this very important match! There were no disqualifications due to illegal rackets, umpires did not control the rackets before the matches in such a theatrically way as it was the case during the World Championships in Dortmund. Yellow and red cards were again given on a massive scale. If somebody would count all the cards given to players and coaches it would seem that the players and coaches behaved themselves quite unsporting, in spite of the fact that table tennis is one of the sports in which fair play is the regular way of behaviour. Some umpires with their readiness to give their cards all the time, remind of cowboys a long time ago that kept their pistols ready to be drawn at all times. For offences, which are offences only if the rules are not understood in their real intention, a lot of yellow and red cards have been given. It was specially the case when a coach was ill reputed. The globetrotter Milan Stencl, former Netherlands, Belgian, Italian, French, Luxemburgian, Croatian national coach, who retired and lives in Luxemburg, was asked by Croatian association to help and coach the girls in the qualifications. In his active times he was well known for his fights with umpires and referees, he seldom managed to survive a tournament without yellow and/or red cards. In Luxemburg he coached in the first round Croatian girl Molnar and got immediately in first set a yellow card and in the second set red card, but in reality he got it more because of his ill reputation than for his acting, in soccer he would probably get this time a trophy for fair play! It was amazing that he walked from the table without any protest, in his younger days it would have been a show!

The time passes by fast!
Several players which were considered as future European stars some time ago, played in Luxemburg, but they did not develop as expected - like former European boys champion Drinkhall from England who was expected to become world champion at home and in Luxemburg did not have a chance to qualify himself for Olympics! His successor, the young Pitchford was present in Luxemburg as well - he is for sure a very talented player, but during qualifications in Luxemburg a prospectus was distributed free of charge in which in an article he was praised as potential future Olympic gold medallist?! European cadet champion from 1999 Zwickl from Hungary was in his time as well praised as extremely talented player, but achieved his first important result with 28 years of age by qualifying himself for Olympic Games! The change from boys and girls competition into men and women competition becomes more and more difficult, more and more young European players get lost in this transition.

For quite some women the time passed by too fast - Tamara Boros (Croatia) and Tan Mofardini ((Italy) played once more against each other after 2003 European championships but the circumstances were quite changed. In 2003 both ladies were on the top of Europe, they played out the gold medal in team event, which was at the end won by Italian team. In Luxemburg tried both Boros and Tan Monfardini to qualify for Olympic Games in London, but both ladies were in Luxemburg not among top 100 in the World ranking list anymore! They played against each other, Tan Monfardini won this time as well and succeeded to qualify herself for Olympics, Boros did not.

Stories from the hall
The veterans participating in the qualifications in Luxemburg went back home quite disappointed, except He Zhiwen (50), who managed to qualify himself. Bentsen (43) and Korbel (42) had to leave already after qualifying rounds, Chtschetinine (43) and Timina (43) managed to survive qualifying rounds but did not qualify for the Games.


The story was that the French woman, 34 years old defender Xian from China few months before qualifications in Luxemburg wanted to stop playing table tennis but was in the end persuaded by the Federation to proceed and qualified herself in first attempt for London. The Chinese woman, 37 years old Tian, who has lived in Croatia for more than 10 years, was all the time not member of national team as she was considered not good enough, but last year she finally became member of the national team and qualified herself for Olympics. In one round when Tian played against Xian, a group of French players and coaches supported their Chinese girl, a group of Croatian players and coaches supported their Chinese girl!!

Netherlands national sport manager Achim Sialino was not happy at all with the playing system of this qualifications. In Dortmund during World Championships was said that best 10 men and women teams will qualify themselves for London - after Netherlands won the 6th place in women teams event Netherlands members of press congratulated the Federation for the team qualification for London. Sialino had to explain to the press that their team was still not qualified, as Timina as third player has to qualify herself in Luxemburg and so enable the team to play in London! Press people did not understand why Timina has to play in Luxemburg where tickets for individual event will be played for. Sialino tried to explain the system but the reporters did not want to listen and told him they do not understand it and he shall tell them after the qualification if the team is qualified or not. Timina did not succeed to be among top 11 players in Luxemburg and so the best European women team has only a small chance left that Timina can make it better in coming World qualifications, otherwise the sixth place from Dortmund will not help much!

Sten Hansen was Danish coach and sport manager, afterwards coach and manager in Spain, in England and now again in Spain. He was asked what is the difference in table tennis between these 3 countries. In his opinion Denmark has a well organized table tennis structure, but the country is small, there are not many players, Table tennis in England boomed some years ago but now the situation is not so good anymore - the national training centre Sheffield looses on importance, best players are leaving the country. In Spain it seems to be more important to be as a region better than another region instead of working together to develop Spanish table tennis. As an all European problem he considers lack of will for hard work of European young players, they start to care only for money too early.

Ilie Lupulescu was in Luxemburg Serbian coach on duty. He was Olympic silver medallist in doubles, used to live over 10 years in Chicago as promotion manager of a table tennis company. Recently he accepted an offer from Serbian Federation to come back home and take over boys and men national selections. Former top player was in Luxemburg as coach - as a player he was extremely talented player but not known as hard worker or submitted to discipline, but as coach he now insists on hard work and allows no cracking of discipline!

Ukrainian women participating in qualifications were for sure the most noticeable women team in the hall - all three girls were about 20 years old, all three nice looking, and blond and with the same hair cut! From this trio only Pesocka succeeded to qualify herself for London.

For defenders the tournament in Luxemburg was extremely hard - 5 days they had to play day after day, such a tempo was quite demanding for defenders. Almost all off defenders failed, in women only Xian (France) made it, in men Pattantyus from Hungary. Some coaches said that Pattantyus is a weak copy of Austrian world class Chinese Chen Weixing, who is with backhand playing cut defence, with forehand topspin attack. In Luxemburg it was a surprise to see that some of best European players can not at all play against defence, like Marcos Freitas, but some others too!
Amelie Solja, former German girl national team player changed to Austria. Due to new ITTF rule she can not play for Austria on World- or Continental championships as after 21 years of age nobody can change the country which he/she is playing for anymore. This rule was in fact implemented to stop the bigger and bigger "export" of Chinese players which started to play for many national teams, even if such a rule is not in accordance with European human rights understanding. Amelie Solja was eligible to play as Austrian in Olympic qualifications as for Olympia Olympic rules and not ITTF rules are valid, and according to Olympic rules Solja is eligible for Austria. For coming World Olympic qualifications Switzerland intends to nominate their player Sadikovic, it is the same case as the case of Amelie Solja! .