15th World University Table Tennis Championship
Györ, Hungary, September 1st to 5th, 2004
High Caliber Championship
"The playing level was extremely high, I would say even higher than it was the last couple of years. The organizers did their outmost to follow that level"
The Athltetes' Oath
From September 1st to 5th, the 15th World University Table Tennis Championship took place in Györ, Hungary. The Organizing Committee put a lot of effort in organizing a smooth championship. The athletes and officials were staying in four different hotels, all of them at walking distance from the championship venue. All games were played in the newly built sports arena of the Széchenyi István University of Györ. This arena has a 2,000 seating capacity. Next to the Arena a smaller sports hall with eight tables for practice purposes was accessible for the participants representing 25 countries. It was the first time at a WUC Table Tennis that all continents were represented.
Adon Negamiye (BDI)
Africa's First
Adon Negamiye from Burundi was the only representative from the African continent. The economics student from Lake Tanganyika University is the number one player of his University and the number five of the Burundi national table tennis team. It is the first time his country sent a delegation to the World University Table Tennis Championship. ‘I’m very happy to meet people from other continents. The tournament is very good’, he told FISU Media. The fact that Adon is representing not only his country, but also the entire African continent gave him a lot of pride. Adon was very much surprised by the very high level of play at this World University Championship. ‘In Burundi the level is not so high as here. One of the main reasons of my presence here is to see and learn from the better players and take this knowledge back to my country to further develop our table tennis.'
Finals Men's Doubles
High Caliber of Participants
Henrik Rud Pedersen, FISU Technical Chairman Table Tennis, was very satisfied with the championship. '42% of the players are included in the recent ITTF (the International Table Tennis Federation) World Ranking List, with among them some famous names such as Chuan Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei, the N° 5 on the World Ranking List. 'The competitions were very exciting with several highlights and surprises during all events. Off course, the Asian countries, especially China, were dominating the event. China took five gold medals, Japan and Chinese Taipei both one gold medal. Host Hungary – in particular men – played at an unexpected high level and took some surprising medals and gave much joy to the spectators. The standard of the 15th World University Table Tennis Championships could easily be compared with those of the European Table Tennis Union’s (ETTU) – at a level closer to the Senior than the Junior championships.'
Kazakh Concentration
Rudolf Sporrer (AUT), the representative of the ITTF, and a former participant at the WUC Table Tennis, agreed with Perdersen. 'This championship showed quite a high sporting level. We had top players from all over the world and I think the playing conditions and the environment were just according to these players. I personally enjoyed this WUC, the playing level was extremely high, I would say even higher than it was the last couple of years. The organizers did their outmost to follow that level. From the point of view of the International Table Tennis Federation, I’m really glad that straight after the Olympics we had a lot of the world top players, who came straight from the Olympics to this event and we had a lot of officials who did a perfect job, so I generally can say the technical running and organization of the tournament could not have been better from my point of view, and I got the same impression by a lot of players.
Finals Women's Singles
Strong Competitions
The men’s team of the host association achieved the most surprising result at the WUC. Daniel Zwickl, Peter Fazekas and Peter Musko defeated the top seeded team of China, lead by world ranked no. 12, Liu Guozheng, by 3:2 in the quarter-finals. The men’s final ended in a close 3:2 win of Chinese Taipei over Croatia, whilst in the women’s team final China celebrated a comfortable 3:0 over Japan. Like the Women’s Team competitions, the Double Mixed podium was entirely Asian, with China dominating, taking three of the four places. Once again, the doubles finals were an Asian derby with China dominating the podium. The Men’s Doubles finals were played between Liu Guozheng and Qiu Yike from China against Lee Sun-Hu and Son Gyung Bog from Korea, with Liu and Qiu winning the gold. The bronze medal went to two teams from Hungary.
Women's Team Finals: CHN vs JPN
The Women’s Doubles competition was decided between Cai Shanshan and Dai Ningyang and Bai Yang and Zhang Yu, all from China and ended in favour of Cai and Dai. The bronze went to Japan and Germany. The Men's Singles was disputed between two Chinese players, Liu Guozheng beat his fellow-countryman Qiu Yike to win the gold. In the Women's Singles, the gold went to Japanes player Haruna Fukuoka. Once more it was proven that the Chinese are the masters of the green table, as four out of five individual gold medals went to China. Without a doubt the great star of this competition was the 24-year-old LIU Guozheng from Beijing University who won three gold medals. Even the women’s singles final almost went to China, which would have made it a complete sweep.
The volunteers, an important link in the organization of sporting events!
Organizing Committee
Széchenyi Istvan Egyetem Testnevelesi és Sportközpont Egyetem Tér 1 H9026 Gyor - Hungary phone: (36.96)503455 fax: (36.96)329263
Medals Men's Singles
Gold: Liu Guozheng (CHN) Silver: Qiu Yike (CHN) Bronze : Stehle Nico (GER) / Gorak Daniel (POL)
Medals Women's Singles
Gold: Fukuoka Haruna (JPN) Silver: Cai Shanshan (CHN) Bronze: Dai Ningyang (CHN) / Lu Yun-Feng (TPE)
Medals Men's Doubles
Gold: Liu Guozheng & Qiu Yike (CHN) Silver: Lee Sun-Ho & Son Gyung-Bog (KOR) Bronze: Fazekas Peter & Musko Peter (HUN) / Dudas Robert & Zwickl Daniel (HUN)
Medals Women's Doubles
Gold: Cai Shanshan & Dai Ningyang (CHN) Silver: Bai Yang & Zhang Yu (CHN) Bronze: Fuji Hiroko & Ohata Nahoko (JPN) / Scheld Alexandra & Bollmeier Nadine (GER)
The Medal Awarding Ceremony of the Men's Team Competition
Gold Medal: Team TPE: Chang Yen-Shu - Chuan Chih-Yuan - Chuan Che-Wei - Lai Kuan-She Bronze Medal: Team HUN: Fazekas Péter - Zwickl Daniel - Musko Péter - Pattantyus Adam - Dudas Robert Bronze Medal: Team CZE: Frydrych Vaclav - Gavlas Petr - Hanak Martin - Seibot Petr
The Medal Awarding Ceremony for the Women's Team Competition
Gold Medal: Team CHN: Bai Yang - Cai Shanshan - Dai Ningyang - Qi Nan - Zhang Yu Silver Medal: Team JPN: Fuji Hiroko - Fukuoka Haruna - Kawamura Mai - Ohata Nahoko - Sakamoto Saori Bronze Medal: Team TPE: Lu Yun-Feng - Huang Yi-Hua - Yu Mei-Ju - Pan Li-Chun Bronze Medal: Team KOR: Jang Jung Yeo - Jung Soo San - Ko Eun Jin - Sung Jung Ah - Youn Han Mi
Medals Doubles Mixed Competition
Gold : Liu Guozheng (CHN) & Bai Yang (CHN) Silver: Qiu Yike (CHN) & Dai Ningyang (CHN) Bronze: Xi Minjie (CHN) & Qi Nan (CHN) / Choi Jae-Hyung (KOR) & Youn Han-Mi (KOR)
