Rio Olympic 2016 Preparation Tournament - Germany

[BLUE]

Today (Friday 15th) the Olympic Preparation Tournament has started.

It's a small two day Tournament, which is held in Hamm, Germany. Besides of the 4 german national players there are 8 further participans. This equals a field of 12 players. The main goal is to do a small warm-up in the last weeks before the Olympics start. The players and their coaches can try new stuff and they can have a look at their status quo in a competitive and public atmosphere.
As a little motivational extra there is some prize money to win ;)

1st: 2500€
2nd: 1500€
3rd: 500€

The competition will be held in two days:

First there is a group stage in which 3 players are drawn into 4 groups. I don't know about the seeding, but there can be no two players of the same nationality in a group.
The first of each group qualifies for the semi final.

The games, which will be held to determine the winners of the groups (12 games = 4 Groups x 3 games) will be split up in two parts. The first part will be held Friday and contains 2 games of each group. The loser of each of the first match-ups has to play his second game on the same day.
At this stage, there are two match tables and two games of two different groups will be held simultaneously.

The rest of the group stage (4 games) and the two semi-finals and the final will be held Saturday. This time, there is only one "center court".

The entries are:



#
Name
Vorname
Verein
QTTR



Boll
Timo
Borussia Düsseldorf
2625



Drinkhall
Paul
England
2476



Franziska
Patrick
1. FC Saarbrücken-TT
2491



Gionis
Panagiotis
Borussia Düsseldorf
2513



Kou
Lei
Ukraine
2492



Li
Ping
China
2558



Ovtcharov
Dimitrij
Fakel Gazprom Orenburg
2661



Pitchford
Liam
TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen
2491



Samsonov
Vladimir
Belarus
2567



Shibaev
Alexander
Russia
2548



Steger
Bastian
SV Werder Bremen
2544



Walker
Samuel
ASV Grünwettersbach
2384


(as I said, I don't know about seeding)

The groups are:

Group A:


Ovtcharov, Dimitrij
Li, Ping
Drinkhall, Paul


Group B:

Samsonov, Vladimir
Kuo, Lei
Franziska, Patrick


Group C:

Boll, Timo
Gionis, Panagiotis
Pitchford, Liam


Group D:


Shibaev, Alexander
Steger, Bastian
Walker, Samuel


1032810329
(crappy quality sorry)

The atmosphere is really really relaxed and awesome for spectators, the players are just a few meters away and are walking around the place all the time. it feels like they are playing in your local club. I even had the luck sit right behind Vladimir Samsonov and Richard Prause (both really humble). I know I'm repeating myself, but the atmosphere is really cozy.

If you care about ticket prices: adults 10€ a day and under 18 years 5€ per day. Small prize for an event where Boll is casually standing right besides you, sitting behind Samsonov, standing behind Shibaev and wondering about his size ;) or beeing asked by Gionis if you'd mind if he puts his table tennis bag under aour seat for a second :p

One more important thing: Here is a link to up to date results. http://web109.cimail.de/000/Olympia/type_1.html
(http://web109.cimail.de/000/Olympia/type_1.html)
If you have any questions, dare to ask! I'll try my best to answer them!

Cheers,
BLUE

10325

[Dan]

This warm up event looks amazing! Will there be any live stream BLUE? Enjoy the event! Thanks for sharing with us.

I found a couple of results on twitter.

10330

[BLUE]

Hey Dan,

yeah it's quite special :D
unfortunately there is no live streaming. I'm even in doubt, that there will be any video evidence of it :(
Maybe I can get something going. I'll try my best ;)

10331

Don't forget to ask, if you want to know anything :)

Cheers,
BLUE

[TableTennisDaily]

Full results:

Group A
Li Ping vs Paul Drinkhall 0:3 (5:11, 6:11, 9:11)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs Li Ping 3:1 (11:9, 11:7, 8:11, 12:10)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs Paul Drinkhall 3:1 (9:11, 11:4, 11:6, 11:8)

Group B
Kou Lei vs Patrick Franziska 2:3 (11:3, 6:11, 9:11, 12:10, 5:11)
Vladimir Samsonov vs Kou Lei 3:0 (11:4, 11:7, 11:9)
Vladimir Samsonov vs Patrick Franziska 3:0 (11:7, 11:7, 11:8)

Group C
Gionis Panagiotis vs Liam Pitchford 2:3 (8:11, 8:11, 11:7, 11:2, 8:11)
Timo Boll vs Gionis Panagiotis 3:1 (5:11, 11:6, 11:8, 11:9)
Timo Boll vs Liam PItchford 3:0 (11:3, 13:11, 11:1)

Group D
Bastian Steger vs Sam Walker 3:2 (5:11, 11:8, 8:11, 11:9, 11:7)
Alexander Shibaev vs Sam Walker 3:2 (10:12, 5:11, 11:9, 11:7, 11:9)
Alexander Shibaev vs Bastian Steger 2:3 (5:11, 11:8, 8:11, 11:6, 6:11)

Semi Finals
Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs Timo Boll 3:4 (7:11,3:11, 10:12, 11:9, 11:7, 11:9, 9:11)
Vladimir Samsonov vs Bastian Steger 4:2 (11:4, 11:5, 11:5, 7:11, 9:11, 13:11)

Final
Timo Boll – Vladimir Samsonov 3:0 (11:8, 11:3, 11:7)

[fanTT]

Blue, you were so lucky! Was there any empty seats left?

[Dan]

Some nice pics via Timo Boll on Facebook

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160717/8da3a59ab2e2370c47b707bcdf02b5d7.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160717/24ecc4ffda1df16991e55df97f372b92.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160717/b394e385e14c42c44faa945f20cd58a8.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160717/5732a1460a2fb2529702a0d762109968.jpg

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[achalwins94]

The price money is..... Might pay off hotel rent for a day or two i guess .

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

[v100ev]

I think Vladi was too tired to play good in the finals.. But from the results he is in good form.. I hope he can fight his way to the medals in Rio..

[ttmonster]

I am definitely rooting for Vladi to get at least a medal , if not a silver or gold.. not sure about the draw though ...

I think Vladi was too tired to play good in the finals.. But from the results he is in good form.. I hope he can fight his way to the medals in Rio..

[BLUE]

Blue, you were so lucky! Was there any empty seats left?

Thank you fanTT. I definitely felt lucky :D

Yes there were some seats left, but not too many. I'd say around 10% were empty.

[BLUE]

The price money is..... Might pay off hotel rent for a day or two i guess .

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

Unfortunately table tennis is no sport to earn a lot of money, but keep in mind, that this was just a glorified training tournament. No effect on world rankings whatsoever.

[Filip]

There was also a preperation tournament in Austria, franziska won against ovtcharov in the finals. I saw it on fb. But no further results found. Anyone an idea where i can find them?

[TTFrenzy]

Lets see if boll can perform as before his injury seems like he knows how to handle dima although it was a close match

[BLUE]

I think Vladi was too tired to play good in the finals.. But from the results he is in good form.. I hope he can fight his way to the medals in Rio..

Both were tired in the final. One of them had even pain.
There was also a long brake between the semi-finals and the final, but not long enough for an extended resting period.
Vladi even stayed in the hall and spend most of his time talking to the ITTF President Thomas Weikert and German National Coach Jörg Rosskopf. (He even gave signatures and posed for pics with children in the mean time, which just shows how humble he is).
Boll was in the locker room (I heard he complained about back pain, which I hope will settle soon :()
Both players agreed on shortening the final from best of 7 to best of 5.
First, the organizers weren't too fond about this, but when Richard Prause had a short chat with one of the organizers (Prause was quite cross;)) the decision was done.

What is more interesting is, that it seems like Vladi is having problems against Boll. I've recently seen him a few times (live) playing against Boll and everytime he seemed to be unsure about the bounce of the balls and the table. In the matches were he played against other players this wasn't the case. Might be the tables reaction to the extra spin from Boll. Who knows?

When I asked him after the match, he just complimented, that Boll played great and that it was deserved. He denied, when I asked him, if the long break played a role.