What happened to the audience for this fabulous table tennis?
Well because as nice as the hall and the whole facility is, COS OPO Spała is basically a national center for Olympic sports.
It is surrounded by woods and placed next to the small city called Spała. There is no local interest and you have to travel far to get there ...
So I have been there yesterday : ) Just a few people watching on the stands and vast majority of them are a national teams cheering for their teammates. I choose to seat next to the India team and not too far from the Koreans. We've been watching YANG Haeun and BATRA Manika match. Manika although lost 0:4 was really close in point in every set. Too bad because she represents this rare style (pimpled rubber and defense close to the table). India guys Ashanta, Gosh and the whole team were having a really good time laughing all the time, and I was laughing with them, even though I didn't know a single world they said ... ; )
I also had a short talk with Jeoung Youngsik. He used to play with the Bogoria team in Poland, really nice guy - very open. I learned from him, he has just recovered from his wrist injury and I hope he will do well in Halmstad. Because of how friendly he was to the me, basically a stranger, and also his playing style (bh oriented) I think I became his fan now.
Little footage ... and exhibitionist time ; )
So I think next time it would be nice to have it closer to Cracow. Even for a Challenger there would be more people then in many of the WTs .
Here is the link to the proper castle, to held those Table Tennis tourneys ... : )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel