The much anticipated table tennis event at the 2015 Pan American Games has begun today in Toronto, Canada in front of a sell out crowd.
80 players representing 16 countries from North and Latin America have converged at the Atos Markham Pan Am Centre for the 17th Pan American Games and the ninth for table tennis.
The event kicks off with the team's event, where each country is represented by their top three players on their quest for gold.
The Pan American Games teams event follows the Olympic format, with two singles matches followed by doubles and then two reverse singles matches. The match goes on until one team reaches three victories.
The Brazilian men will be looking to continue their recent dominance of the event, which has seen them win six out of the eight times the event has taken place.
Brazil is headed by 18-year-old, Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist Hugo CALDERANO, who will be using the team event to get himself familiar to the conditions for an assault on the men's singles later this week.
Prior to CALDERANO's first match he stated: " am very happy to be here at such a big event. I am excited to be playing in my first Pan American Games and I am very eager to get started. I hope this will be a good spring board to more success at my home Olympic Games next year."
USA, who boasts the youngest and oldest players in the competition in Kanak JHA - 15 years old and Jimmy BUTLER - 44 years year old will be stern competitors for the Brazilian team, as will be the strong Cubans.
Despite never winning a Pan American Games women's team gold medal, the Brazilian team are the number one seeds and the team to beat.
Puerto Rico, who are seeded four are seen as the dark horse for the event, and if they can get off to a good start, they could be standing on the podium for a historic first medal.
The medals for the men's and women's teams events will be handed on 21 July, before the singles competition starts on 22 July and concluding on 25 July.
Learn everything you need to know about the table tennis event at the Pan American Games by accessing the media kit here: http://www.edm.ittf.com/link.php?M=38396&N=1316&L=1906&F=H
For more information, please contact:
High resolution photos will be available on request. For more information and photos, please contact: media@ittfmail.com
For any other questions or queries, please contact ITTF's Promotion Manager Matt Pound at mpound@ittfmail.com
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
PUBLICIDAD
PUBLICIDAD
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
