With the opening ceremony at the “Arina Beach Resort” hotel, the first-ever World Table Tennis For Health Festival, which will include three events, opens its doors in Heraklion on Wednesday. The World Championships for athletes with Parkinson’s, for the first time the World Championships for people with Alzheimer’s, as well as a World Congress for health.
The competitive events will take place in the Two Aorakis of Heraklion from Thursday until next Sunday, while the World Table Tennis for Health Congress will be held on the 3rd and 4th of November at the “Arina Beach Resort”, where Greek scientists will also speak.
About 60 will be the total entries in the games from 16 countries around the world. The Festival is organized by E.F.O.E.P.A. under the auspices and authorization of the ITTF Foundation.
The WTT4H Festival grew out of growing excitement for the Parkinson’s World Championships and offers a wonderful opportunity to showcase the benefits that sport can have in other neurological disorders. Overall, the big event will promote the positives of table tennis for health (not just for people with the above diseases), disease prevention and staying active in general.
They are purposes within the wider mission and investment by the Group and the ITTF Foundation, which gives a lot of information about the festival.
The event will also be honored by the presence of the Swedish Petra Serling, president of the ITTF and a member of the International Olympic Committee for some time now. It will arrive in Crete next Friday. The director of the Foundation, the Argentinian Leandro Olvech, is already in Heraklion. The head of the Local Organizing Committee is the president of E.F.O.E.P.A., Kostas Papageorgiou.
The final preparations are being made in the closed gym and the help of the volunteers, among the athletes and coaches of the OAA Heraklion, is already valuable.
Shipments have started coming in since Monday and the gym has been available for training since Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, the classification takes place, a process that mainly athletes with Parkinson’s will go through.
On Wednesday at 13:00, there is the opening ceremony and in the afternoon the draws, while the action is set for Thursday at 10:00 with singles matches.
The Two Aorakia, located in the industrial area of ​​Nea Alikarnassos of the Municipality of Heraklion with a capacity of 5,222 seats, is the only closed sports facility in Crete, which can host major events of international prestige in all indoor sports.
In the established Parkinson’s World Championships three categories have been announced in each individual event. The final entries will finalize how many and which categories will be held in Crete, as well as the categories that will be formed for people with Alzheimer’s. Also, categories can be merged if there are few entries.
Consolation events are also planned. The results, of course, come second in such competitions, the joy of participation and sport counts more, however, there is no lack of passion for distinctions.
There will be three categories for men and two for women in the Parkinson’s single:
Men’s Singles Class 1
Men’s Singles Class 2
Men’s Singles Class 3
Women’s Singles Class 1
Women’s Singles Class 2
Women’s Singles Class 3
The program will also include the doubles, where the classes also differ. For example, Men’s Doubles Class 1 (2-3 from assessment), Women’s Doubles Class 1 and Mixed Doubles Class 1. Matches for family members, chaperones and the public can also be played! A farewell party is also planned for Sunday evening and November 6 is the departure day.
Always as advertised, all games in the early stages follow a best-of-three-set system. In the main draws the matches will be with the best of five set system. All matches in the consolation events, as well as the friendly tournament for family members, athletes’ caregivers and fans, will be best of 3 games.
The event will have two stages, both for singles and doubles: First the group matches and then the “knock outs”. Consolation games are also provided for all competitions. Pairs are also formed between sportsmen and women of different categories.
Six athletes and four athletes are going to compete in the World Parkinson Championship from Greece. Polychronis Politsis, Stefanos Spanakis, Christina Athanasopoulou and Michalis Manias have been appointed as responsible coaches. In the tournament for people with Alzheimer’s all entries will be from Greece.
The two-day Conference on health and the role of table tennis in the treatment of serious neurological diseases will take place on Friday and Saturday at the conference center of the “Arina Beach Resort” hotel. Among others, Panagiotis Mitsias, professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, member of the Scientific Committee of the Alzheimer’s association “Allelgyi” of Heraklion, where he is vice-president, and Pavlos Potouridis, also one of the vice-presidents of “Allelgyi”, who will speak ‘ analyze the topic “Table Tennis for Health, Preventing Alzheimer’s with Table Tennis”.
The ITTF has arranged for all matches from table 1 to be live streamed. Results will also be posted on the organization’s website.
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