A wonderful view of Mons
Belgian city of Mons to host 2010 Euro-Asia European stage
14/01/2010 - City of Mons will be the host of the duel between the best European and Asian players in October this year. The Euro-Asia All Stars Series second Leg will be held in the capital of the Hainaut Province in Belgium on 12th and 13th October 2010. Mons Arena with capacity of 3.700 spectators will be the venue for the two-day competition.
The city of Mons has been chosen even because it's only 20 km from the French border and also only 30 km from Charleroi, the Belgian city where TT have strongest tradition thanks to fantastic results in European Champions League.
The Belgium's part of organization was entrusted to Philippe SAIVE and his Company Philippe SAIVE Management on behalf of Belgian TT Association. Philippe SAIVE Management already successfully organized the 2005 and 2008 "Liebherr Men's World Cup" in Belgium. Asian leg of the Event has been scheduled for 13th-15th April 2010 and once again, after successful premiere last year in Beijing, China's capitol will be the host.
Last year, for the European team played Vladimir SAMSONOV, Kalinikos KREANGA, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Michael MAZE and Jorgen PERSSON. In Asia's line up were included names of MA Long and MA Lin of China among the participants. Asian side won first leg 6:4 on aggregate. For Europe MAZE and OVTCHAROV won two matches each.
In Istanbul instead of OVTCHAROV and PERSSON the European line up was reinforced by Timo BOLL and Werner SCHLAGER. Asian side also did some changes and included world's number one WANG Hao. Europe won in Istanbul 6:5 after additional match. Among the winners were MAZE, BOLL, SCHLAGER and SAMSONOV. BOLL overcame WANG Hao and SAMSONOV succeeded in the additional 11th match. Measured by the interest of media the Event was the nothing but success too on both legs.
The event had a huge coverage worldwide, with some 15 Asian broadcasting TV channels, whilst in Europe both competition days were transmitted "live" by Eurosport for around 6 hours in the aggregate.
The Event came alive after Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) and European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), during the Olympic Games held in Beijing, made a five-year agreement to jointly sanction the "Asia-Europe All Stars Series".
(by Milica NIKOLIC, EWT)
Photo: a wonderful view of Mons
