ZEN-Noh has been officially unveiled as the title sponsor of the 2014 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships to be held in Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan on 28 April – 5 May 2014.
During the unveiling ceremony, which was attended by over 30 press agencies, the World Championship's logo was also announced. The logo design (right) symbolises the synergy between table tennis and the Japanese culture.
ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations) is a federation of agricultural cooperatives in Japan whose main business is farm production, livestock and processed food. ZEN-NOH is also currently sponsoring Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) who is ranked 9th in the world.
ITTF's President Adham SHARARA stated: "It is encouraging to see the preparations for the World Championships in Tokyo being at a very advanced stage. This gives the ITTF confidence that another great event will be staged by the Japan Table Tennis Association."
"I take this opportunity to welcome ZEN-NOH as the title sponsor, and I am sure that they will be more than satisfied with the tremendous exposure they will receive through world-wide TV coverage," he added.
Japanese Table Tennis Association Vice President Koji KIMURA shared the delight of the ITTF President: "I would like to express my sincere appreciation to ZEN-NOH, who kindly accepted the title sponsorship for the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships. Table tennis players and fans in Japan have special feelings and preference for team table tennis, so it should be a great event."
Mr. Masanobu YOSHINAGA, the Senior Executive Vice President of ZEN-NOH, stated: "We are honored to be the title sponsor of ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships."
"ZEN-NOH has been supporting children who are striving for their dreams in the various sports for a long time. We hope that by seeing the championships, many children will be inspired to start playing table tennis in the pursuit of 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games," he added.
Expectations will be high from the Japanese public to attain gold at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, from both their women's team who won silver at London 2012 and their men's team who are ranked 3rd in the world.
Japanese superstar and world number 14 Ai FUKUHARA is aiming to match these expectations and go one step higher on the podium than London 2012: "I am looking forward to getting together with my team mates. We will all do our best to do better than we did at London."
These sentiments were echoed by the men's team Kenta MATSUDAIRA: "There will naturally be a great, supportive atmosphere towards Japanese players and I want to win the gold. I also want to bring the hopes to the people in the disaster area affected by the earthquake."
For more information contact: ITTF Promotion Manager, Matt Pound, at mpound@ittf.com
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