The incumbent
President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Thomas Weikert
is seeking election as the number one table tennis person in the world after
officially launching his campaign in Saarbrucken, Germany at the weekend.
The former
Germany Table Tennis Association President during a press briefing at the
weekend during the 2016 ITTF World Cup said that he hopes to bring a lot of
changes to the fortune of the sport having paddled the canoe of the sport in
the last two years after the erstwhile President, Adham Sharara resigned in
2014, while he provisionally took charge.
“In 2014 no
election was necessary for me to take on the responsibility as president. I am
delighted that I can now also stand for the delegates’ vote for the first time
in Dusseldorf in 2017,”the lawyer from Limburg said.
With five
central themes on his agenda, Weikert said: “The ITTF is firmly committed to
keeping table tennis attractive for players, spectators and media and further
improve its appeal. Current key words include game speed, game length and TV
broadcasts. In collaboration with relevant experts, topics such as net height,
rapid set decisions and angles of television cameras shall be discussed and put
to rest.”
He however
added, “We need to take some important and necessary decisions in our sport in
the next four years. My goal is to not only secure an excellent position for
table tennis within Olympic sports, but also further develop it.”
The 54
year-old sports law expert promised to further develop the sport in ‘small’
nations with the help of the federation’s development aid as well as promoting
training programmes at the highest level in order to raise the level and peak
of the sport to an even broader basis.
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