Table tennis stopped the traffic and united two continents on Saturday 26th July 2009.
The
country was Turkey, the personnel involved were Austria’s Werner
Schlager and Hong Kong Kong’s Ko Lai Chak; the venue was the Bosphorus
Bridge.
It is the bridge which straddles the Bosphorus otherwise known as the Istanbul Strait and links Europe with Asia.
Promoted jointly by the European and Asian Table Tennis Unions,
Werner Schlager and Ko Lai Chak were present to execute their skills in
order to promote the forthcoming Euro-Asia Tournament.
Road Closed
At
7.00am the bridge was closed to traffic, a court mat duly laid and
table tennis table strategically placed so that one half was in Asia
and the other in Europe.
The exhibition, which attracted intense
media coverage, lasted 30 minutes with the promotion of the event
continuing in a boat where distinguished guests including Adham Sharara
(ITTF President), Stefano Bosi (ETTU President) and Otkay Simon
(Turkish TTA President) were present.
Schedule
The
European stage of the event will be held in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday
10th and Wednesday 11th November 2009 whilst the Asian stage will be
organised on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th August 2009.
Timo
Boll, Vladimir Samsonov, Michael Maze, Kalinikos Kreanga and Werner
Schlager plus the host nation’s Gencay Menge will comprise the European
team whilst in Beijing Jörgen Persson will replace Werner Schlager.
Television
Extensive
television coverage will follow the events with Eurovision/EBU
affording 15 minutes of the footage to the world feed (Europe, Asia,
Americas) with more than 30 channels worldwide receiving the feed.
Source: www.ittf.com
