by Ray Filz
 
It is not often you get a chance to go to an exotic place and when
that exotic place is China,it becomes intriguing. That situation
presented itself last December when a club member asked me if I would
like to be a member of the Nicaraguan delegation to the 49th WTTC.
in Guanghzou, China. Nicaragua does not have a team as such, as
Mr. Ortega runs the show and would probably not want anyone representing
his country that was not on his terms. The Nicaraguan Table Tennis Federation,
however would gladly support a venture by native born players even though they
all lived in the States. That was the how it was told to me and my role would
be as an accompanying person, which would be with credentials to enable me to
mingle around a little bit. In racing they call it a pit pass so I guess that
would be a good way to explain it.
 
Pablo Perez (Charlotte), Rudy Miranda, Guillermo Morales,and Blake Hoard were
the remaining members of the delegation with Blake being the manager. They are
all from California.
 
The flight took about 27 hrs. with a layover in Tokyo, and if you don't think
spending a day on a plane is nice try it sometime. I was glad to get there and
glad to get back.The time spent there was, however memorable. The host city has
10 million residents, which seemed to be all in one area when we went shopping
on the last Sat. there. The 5 Star Hotel we stayed at, and the playing venue ,
was not as populated with residents but was sure populated with world class players.
After all,some 140 countries sending their best players,
makes for some great table tennis.
 
The tournament was played in 2 halls. The main hall was reserved for the better
teams both men and women. The Chinese were always playing in prime time with the
men and women alternating. Those matches all started around 7:30 with quite an
impressive marching in format with the competing teams. The main hall held about
16-20,000 people and the matches involving the Chinese sold out every night.
The passion is no different than here with Nascar, college football,or basketball.
It was interesting to see little old ladies running to a ticket booth,
ticket in hand not wanting to miss a thing.
 
Most of the top companies were there selling all things related to table tennis.
Clothing was very cheap, where you could buy four shirts for $15. Some of the rubber
sheets were very cheap also but the quality may be suspect, so you had to be careful.
Good quality shoes could be purchased for $20.
 
I must mention a little about the hotel's banquet room where all the meals were served.
They had two long tables each about 40ft.All different kinds of food were in serving
pans with lids kept warm with flames underneath. Most of the time you could find a dish
to your liking. I stayed away from the oxtails and baby octopus however.
What was fun though ,standing next to the likes of Wang Liquin as he was getting
something to eat also. As a matter of fact the whole Chinese team was there at the
same time we were on several occasions. The same for the German's, Romania. Hungary,
Japanese, etc.It was quite impressive seeing these guys in person that you see in
the table tennis mags.
 
Last but not least was the quality of play. The main hall had the highest quality
but I most say the secondary hall had the more exciting matches . Perhaps they were
more evenly matched, because there were many deuce in the 5th matches. Being ahead,
say 10-8 in the 5th meant nothing. Even with you serving you may think you had
the edge. Not so, these guys are trained to come back and fight to the death and
that they do. One match I remember in particular was between a Turkish and
North Korean player. The Turk won the first two games and then lost 11-0.
It ended up deuce in the 5th with the Korean winning.
 
As for results the Nicaraguan team went 5-4. The U.S. men finished 44th and the
U.S women finished 12th
 
I would recommend taking in a World's of some sort if at all possible .
You will never forget the experience.