16th World University Table Tennis Championship
Maribor, Slovenia - July 4th to 9th, 2006
The precious volunteers who were avaliable 24 hours a day!
Final Edition!
As from 2007 at the Bangkok Universiade, table tennis will be one of the mandatory sports, so World University Championships will no longer be organized in this discipline.
Table tennis is one of the extremely popular sports that contribute to the success of our World University Championships. So we felt it was a bit paradoxical to have to announce that this 16th edition of the World University Championships will be the last! But don't worry, enthusiasts in the discipline will be able to compete in another context: the Universiades. Actually, as from 2007 at the Bangkok Universiade, table tennis will be a mandatory sport and consequently the World University Championships will no longer be organized.
Chuan Chih-Yuan, the N°10 on the ITTF ranking list
The Slovenian University Sports Association (SUSA) has only been a member of FISU since 1997. So this was the first time it organized a World University Championship, and the choice of table tennis for the occasion was no accident. This sport is very popular in Slovenia and the country has many excellent young enthusiasts. This championship took place at Maribor, the second-largest city in Slovenia and an economic, university, cultural and athletic centre in the northeast region. Located in the heart of central Europe, the town has 20,000 students. In fact, the brand-new University Sports Centre hosted the competitions. This multisport centre, just a few minutes walk from the athletes’ quarters, offered a first-class infrastructure for our table tennis men who came from 24 different countries to ensure the success of the 16th and last World University Table Tennis Championships. An average of 66% of the women participating and 50% of the men were listed by the International Tennis Table Federation (ITTF), meaning that the standards for the championship were again very high.
Gold Medallist Hou Yingchao (CHN)
China Dominates
Team competition started the tournament, and it was an all-Asian event, at least in the men's and women's finals. For the men, China outdid its neighbour Chinese Taipei in a Homeric battle ending 3 to 0. In defense of the losers, it must be said that their star player Chuan Chih-Yuan, 10th on the ITTF list, was not there to help, since he was playing a tournament in Shanghai. Japan and Thailand took bronze. For the women, China took the day again, for a magnificent double win. But the excellent Russian team put up a good fight. Chinese Taipei and Korea came third.
Doubles
The Chinese were decidedly very hard to beat; they kept up the pace as they won the mixed doubles. Zhai Yiming and Dai Ningyang had no trouble overtaking the Japanese Ono/Abe in 4 sets. Third place went to two other couples, both Chinese! Chinese Taipei would get its own in the men's doubles. Hou Yingchao and Wang Zhen (CHN) never managed to rival their opponents, Wu Chih-Chi and Chang Yen-Shu from Taiwan. The latter scored four sets to one in a one-sided match. Bronze medals went to two Korean teams that had lost in the semifinals. Finally, for the ladies, there was not much suspense with two Chinese couples in the finals. But there was still plenty of excitement. Yu Jingwei and Dai Ningyang got the better of Lu Ying and Jiao Yongli in a very close game played in 7 sets (4 to 3).
Silver Medallist Nadine Bollmaier (GER)
Singles
German Nadine Bollmaier was one of the very few Europeans who could hope for a good score in the tournament. Her ascension to the finals in the women’s singles was no accident – she plays first division for a Dutch club (Fürst Manderveld/Heerlen). Facing her, Chinese Yu Jingwei made the best of her experience, leaving no weak spots for her opponent to exploit. Yu won the title in a superb final.
Finally, the tournament understandably ended on 100% Chinese note in the men's singles. Hou Yingchao opposed Wang Zhen in a match where the two talented student athletes vied in pure traditional Chinese style: defending with a backhand, and attacking with a forehand. The two experts know each other well, so spectators got quite a show and the final kept all its promises. Hou Yingchao finally overcame at 4 sets to 2 confirming what all observers expected of him. He will be worth watching in the future. We meet again in Bangkok in 2007 at the Universiade, for the next World University Table Tennis Tournament.
Organizing Committee
Slovenian University Sports Association Dunajska cesta 104 SI-1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Phone: ++(386.1)5654136 Fax: ++(386.1)5654137 e-mail: info@susa.org URL: http://www.susa.org/wuttc2006/
FISU Technical Chairman
News
Final Ranking
Men's DoublesNumbers
Total Number of Participating Countries: 24 Total Number of Male Athletes: 87 Total Number of Female Atletes: 72
