Table Star 2028

I wonder how our table tennis will then look in Holland. But with any luck the Olympic fire will be lit and, as the Orange Legion, we shall be able to lend our support to what will without a doubt be the largest Olytmpic team ever. That is all in the distant future, I hear you think. Let's first get to work on Rotterdam 2011. True, of course. But that does not alter the fact that the table tennis stars of 2028 are now playing table tennis in the primary schools during the break on an old table from the local club. Of course there's nothing wrong with this. Young childrean who aren't yet members of a club.  Yet another reason for us all to grab the World Championships as an opportunity to promote our sport.

  The Netherlands Table Tennis Association (NTTB) understands this very well. In the run-up to Rotterdam 2011,  the NTTB has set her sights on the primary schools. A fresh-lookong recreational sport campaign means, among other things, that the pupils of the primary schools will be challenged to collect eight stars. Hitting the ball, footwork, balancing, spin, aiming, juggling, returning the ball - and before you realise it you're a real table star. In Rotterdam - and, I hope, throughout The Netherlands - we shall be seeing children in action who perhaps in 2028 really will be playing brilliant table tennis in Middelburg, Maastricht and Groningen. And wouldn't it be great if the winner of the Table Stars championship were to take part in the 2028 Olympic Games? A historic story is in the making... But the most important thing is that the NTTB, with this well-thought-out project, will welcome many new children in the coming year.   However, the success of Table Stars will not depend on the NTTB. The initiatives of clubs throughout the whole country will be the deciding factor. The national association has brought a fantastic product onto the market with which it can really make an outstanding impression. I hope - and in fact assume - that clubs are going to get to work with it seriously. No - don't grumble about the costs involved. You can't get anything worth while for free. However we do it, together we can make a success of these World Championships (I mustn't say 'must'too often).  We can then get a great deal of pleasure out of the World Championships in 2011 and, who knows, in 2028 as well. Clubs can get to work. The recreational sport campaign has begun!

Peter Hanning
Table tennis fan