Rio Olympic 2016 Preparation Tournament - Germany

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:

1. Ovtcharov, Dimitrij
2. Li, Ping
3. Drinkhall, Paul

Group B:

1. Samsonov, Vladimir
2. Kuo, Lei
3. Franziska, Patrick

Group C:

1. Boll, Timo
2. Gionis, Panagiotis
3. Pitchford, Liam

Group D:

1. Shibaev, Alexander
2. Steger, Bastian
3. Walker, Samuel

(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

One more important thing: Here is a link to up to date results. 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

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

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

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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..

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

Originally Posted by 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..

Originally Posted by fanTT

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

Thank you fanTT. I definitely felt lucky

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

Originally Posted by 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

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.

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?

Originally Posted by 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..

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.