Interest at All Time High for ITTF Global Junior Program Activities
February 4, 2010

Brazil's Caroline Kumahara is a player who will benefit from the extensive activities Photo By: Fernando Aguilar

Courtesy of ITTF The Korean Hopes Challenge is the exciting new addition to the ITTF Hopes Program, which is supported by Butterfly. In July, eyes will be focused on Korea for a series of events, which will include a Training Camp, a Coaches Conference, a Hopes Challenge Tournament, and an ITTF Junior Circuit event. At the moment no fewer than 163 young players from 42 countries are now subject for several steps of evaluation, before the final selection is announced in early May.

Korea
The main ITTF Hopes Training Camp will be staged in Daejon City from Thursday to Sunday, July 15-25, 2010 with a Coaches Conference being held on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 20-21, 2010.

Following the Training Camp, the Korean Hopes Challenge will be staged on Monday and Tuesday, July 26-27, 2010 followed by the Korean Junior Open in Pohang City.

he program has been made possible as a result of a special agreement between the ITTF Education Department, the ITTF Global Junior Program and the Korean Junior Table Tennis Association.

Hive of Activity
Prior to the exciting events in July, the month of February sees a hive of activity.

Organized as follow up events to the 2009 ITTF Hopes Program, Hungary, Austria and Sweden will host a range of training camps for the ITTF Hopes brand in general and the ITTF World Hopes Team project specifically.

Surprise Package
Certainly one of the biggest surprises from those players selected, who were born in 1997 and joined the 2009 World Hopes Team, was Thailand’s Tamolwan Khetkuen.

She excelled in Chengdu in June 2009 but could not compete in the Euro Minichamps in Strasbourg, France owing to visa problems.

Special Permission
However, Tamowlan has now broken the mould. She has received special permission to compete in the Janos Molnar Memorial Tournament in Budapest from Thursday to Sunday, February 4-7, 2010.

Special permission is needed as the tournament is only for boys!

Also from the 2009 ITTF World Hopes Team, Salma Khaled Egypt and Christof Christonof from Cyprus will also compete in Hungary.

Werner Schlager Academy
The second stop is the Werner Schlager Academy in Falk Am See from Sunday to Friday, February 14-19, 2010.

Joining Tamowlan Khetkuen in Hungary will be the impressive American, the left-handed Charles Deng plus the talented South American mini cadet champion Fermin Tenti from Argentina and finally the leading European prospect in this age, Patryk Zatowka from Poland.

The highly motivated Werner Schlager Academy coaching staff will also see the likes of Youth Olympic Games candidates Ariel Hsing from the United States and two interesting Brazilian talents at the camp: Caroline Kumahara from São Paulo and the hard hitting , fourteen year old Hugo Calderon from Rio De Janeiro.

Safir Time
Also February is Safir time; the city of Örebro in Sweden attracts talented youngsters from all over the world.

The organizers of the Safir International and the Swedish Junior Open report a large number of entries for the event and most interesting is the rapidly growing interest for the ITTF Hopes Singles events.

Full House
“At this point we have 54 boys and 28 girls from18 countries in the Hopes singles; that is quite a few more than last year”, said tournament director Lars Elwin. “All in all, the Safir event is now full; we have been forced to return some 150 entries from Swedish clubs this week.”

Training Camp
Prior to the events in Örebro, the International Table Tennis Federation has organized an international elite camp staged at the Swedish Training Centre in Köping.

The camp, starts on Thursday February 18th and has attracted a great deal of interest.

Evaluation
Soren Ahlen, Director and Head Coach, advises that some 60 players from 12 countries will attend; the camp will also serve as a test for the 2010 ITTF World Hopes Team, powered by Butterfly.

Dejan Papic, ITTF World Hopes Team Head Coach, will be in charge of the evaluation process.

Additional Training Camps
Furthermore, the International Table Tennis Federation will stage two additional ITTF Hopes test camps in New Zealand and Venezuela, both in early April, before the selection is finally determined.

Once again it will be the ITTF World Hopes Team Head coach Dejan Papic conducting the sessions.

Final Selection
The final selection for the ITTF World Hopes Team 2010 will be announced by the ITTF in early May.