The Games of table tennis is fast approaching its ultimate climax: the 2012 Olympiad in London (July 27th – August 12^th).

 

The stars of the table tennis scene have as their preparation the World Team Championships in Dortmund, the first part of the World Tour and the (inter) national club championships already behind them.

 

This has been followed by a more or less (too) short period of refueling.

 

July 1 is the launch date for many of Europe’s top players to begin their final intensive preparations for London . . . . in the Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat.

 

Of special note will be the week of 1 – 7 July for the very best of a European course.  The top stars of the continent will be working under the guidance and coordination of the WSA head coach Richard Prause, Mario Amizic and Dirk Wagner for one hard week.

 

Overall, players from 14 nations are on that top-class course for which there was even far more interest and applications than those.  Among the outstanding caregivers is the German men’s head coach Jorg Rosskopf in this really great scene, as a World Champion in doubles, individual European Champion, and an Olympic medalist as a player.

 

At the end of this training week a tournament will be held.  On Friday, 6 July (14.30 clock) and Saturday, 7 July (10.30 clock) you can admire Boll, Samsonov, Maze and Co. in the fight for the title in the WSA Hall.

 

The entrance fee for this tournament: 5 € / day.

The list of participants (in the course and in the tournament):
Male:
Timo Boll, Dimitri Ovtcharov, Bastian Steger, Patrick Baum (all Germany), Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus), Allan Bentsen, Michael Maze (Denmark), Adam Pattantyús, Daniel Zwickl (Hungary), Andrei Gacina, Zoran Primorac (Croatia), Adrien Mattenet (France), Bojan Tokic (Slovenia), Joao Monteiro (Portugal), Carlos Machado (Spain), Alexei Smirnov, Kirill Skachkov, Alexander Shibaev (Russia), Werner Schlager, Chen Weixing, Robert Gardos, Daniel Habesohn (Austria).

Female:
Wu Jiaduo, Kristin Silbereisen, Irene Ivancan, Zhenqi Barthel (all Germany), Viktoria Pavlovich, Alexandra Privalova (Belarus), Iveta Vacenovska, Dana Hadacova (Czech Republic), Mie Skov (Denmark), Cornelia Molnar, Yuan Tian (Croatia), Li Xue, Xian Yi Fang (France), Sara Ramirez, Galia Dvorak (Spain), Matilda Ekholm (Sweden), Daniela Dodean Elisabetha Samara (Romania), Liu Jia, Li Qiangbing, Amelie Solja, Sofia Polcanova (Austria).