From tomorrow up to and including May 3, the city of Linz will be the biggest stage for young table tennis players. It starts with the 21st Raiffeisen Youth Championships, where no fewer than 4000 matches will take place in the Tips Arena until Easter Monday. There are 20 red-white-red talents, including the Freistadt siblings Michelle and Andre Kases, who triumphed at the national U19 championships.
“It will be a spring full of highlights,” said initiator Günther Renner from Linz AG Froschberg and is already looking forward to the first WTT Youth Contender (April 27 to May 3) – also in the Tips Arena. If all announced protagonists appear, Upper Austria will set a world record for table tennis junior events. 363 athletes from 43 nations and five continents are on the entry list, 3500 overnight stays are expected. Not only from a sporting point of view, but also from a tourist point of view, the tournament, which is actively supported by Linz Deputy Mayor Karin Hörzing and State Sports Director Gerhard Rumetshofer, absolutely pays off.
The focus is on the alleged child prodigy Sora Matsushima. The 14-year-old Japanese, who is number two in the current U15 ranking, competed in a “big” World Tour event when he was eleven. Matsushima wants to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot Tomokazu Harimoto, who rose to fifth in the world rankings (general) at the age of 18.
Source: Nachrichten
