UK Sport

Great Britain to stage major International Disability Table Tennis Event

Neil Robinson
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The British Table Tennis Association for people with Disabilities (BTTAD) 06 August 2010

The British Table Tennis Association for people with Disabilities (BTTAD) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded funding support from UK Sport to stage a Factor 40 International tournament in September 2011. The British Open will be one of not more than five similar major world disability table tennis international events approved by the ITTF Para TT Division for 2011.

BTTAD’s partners in this event will be UK Sport, Sheffield City Council and English Table Tennis Association (ETTA). With the 2012 Paralympic Games so close, this high rating event is likely to attract many of the top World ranked players. Only the European Championships (and similar World Regional tournaments) in 2011 will carry a higher rating (50 )

The event will be from Wednesday 14 - Saturday 17 September 2011 and will be staged at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield. EISS is one of Great Britain’s most impressive indoor sports event and training facilities; it is a state of the art venue with world class facilities and is a Sport England-Lottery funded initiative, managed by Sheffield International Venues.

Plans are in hand to appoint Steering and Delivery Groups; an event management company will be recruited to be responsible for matters related to the infrastructure of the event working with the partners and the International Table Tennis Federation Para Division. The event will be used as a training event for officials and volunteers and there will be a legacy development planned.

Peter Taylor, Chairman of BTTAD, said: “A Factor 40 event staged in September 2011 will be the perfect stepping stone for GB athletes to obtain ranking points for London 2012.
"As the cut off point for qualification to the 2012 Paralympic Games is December 2011, staging an event in GB before then will be very beneficial to the sport achieving its Key Performance Indicators and medal targets at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

"There are currently 14 GB disability Table Tennis players in the world top 16 in their respective disability class with local player Sue Gilroy MBE highest ranked at number 2 in hers. We are very grateful to our partners for this great opportunity to promote Disability Table Tennis in Great Britain.”

Gorazd Vecko – ITTF Para DivisionTournament Officer said: “We are delighted that this event will be going ahead in Great Britain at such a crucial time for players and officials."

Esther Nicholls, Event Consultant for UK Sport, said: “UK Sport is committed to bringing world class sporting events to the UK ahead of 2012, in what we believe is the most comprehensive pre- Games events programme ever staged by an Olympic and Paralympic host nation.

"The British Open 2011 will provide an invaluable opportunity for British players to experience international competition on home soil just before the 2012 Paralympic Games. The event also provides us with the opportunity to hone the skills of key officials and to train volunteers , which is vital for building capacity within the sport to host events in the future.”

Any further information can be obtained from Mike Smith, Secretary BTTAD on mike.gr.smith@btinternet.com or Peter Taylor, Chairman BTTAD on panmtaylor@aol.com.

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