4th Romanian International Table Tennis Open (RITTO)
for People with Physical Disabilities
20-22 May 2010
REPORT
www.ritto.ro
Twenty one countries with 153 participants attended the 4th Romanian International Table Tennis Open from the 20-22 May 2010. The countries represented this year were, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey while the umpires came from Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the Classifiersthe Netherlands and Bulgaria, the Referee from France while the Technical Delegate was from Canada.
We used 3 hotels; the Hotel Best Western Topaz, Hotel Golden Tulip, and the Hotel Premier. The Hotel Stadion housed the Romanian standing players. Sally had decided to invest in special chairs for the hotel showers and seats for baths for the players and all were used with excellent feedback. This extra cost of 2500 euros was well worth it and these can be used every year now. The Hotel Premier was an excellent addition to our accommodation with the manager and staff offering a first class service to everyone. The Golden Tulip, with 70 rooms, all accessible and 40 twin bedded rooms was also a good choice though there were some minor hiccups because of managerial problems.
The Local Organizing Committee comprised Katie Rizvi and her excellent team from the Little People Association; Aileen Wood, a friend from Britain organized the competitors’ arrival information, sorted out all the arrival problems with accommodation and in fact was the Assistant Chair of the LOC throughout the competition; Anca Chereches was Technical Venue Director at the Sports Hall; Ileana Aciu, Elisabeta Serbanescu made up the computer team; Allegra Roccato from Venice was the Results Secretary; Elisabeta Vuscan, was the accommodation liaison officer. Serghei Pinzaru was in charge of the transport and Micky Inoue together with Vlad, all from the Little People Association, were the Procurement Officers and managers of the Sports Hall. Liviu Crisan was the Master of Ceremonies and he did a wonderful job. We had two additional volunteers from Bucharest, Mihaela Niculescu from the CEC bank and Alina Ion from the British Embassy who offered a great deal of assistance to Aileen behind the scenes as well as working as volunteers on the sports hall and the food tent. Katie, Vice-President from the Little People Association was in charge of the 600 volunteers from schools in Cluj, and with her volunteer team had the following responsibilities; to provide ball boys/girls for every wheelchair match from 8am to the last match of the day, to make sure that there was water in every drinking fountain, to help with the distribution of the lunches and the clearing of tables in the food tent and the making up of the lunch bags; making sure the toilets were clean and had soap and toilet paper at all times; serving coffee and biscuits to all umpires and IPTTC staff and ascertaining that all international visitors were looked after at the Sports Hall. An additional responsibility that the Little People took on was the organizing of the Medal ceremony. As last year, Katie hired national Romanian costumes. Four volunteers, two male and female were dressed in national dress and the medal ceremonies were performed in a very professional manner receiving praise from everyone concerned. In addition, Shajjad and Orsi were the Media Officers, keeping the press up to date with all the latest information, organizing interviews with the players, placing the banners from the sponsors etc. Everyone in the LOC knew their specific role; everyone worked together as a team and if now and again there were some misunderstandings, it did not matter: the main objective was achieved - to make sure that everyone was happy and enjoyed their stay in Cluj.
Once again, thank you very much for everything you, your staff in the office and your huge crew of volunteers have done for the tournament. It was great!!
Karol Zidiliak, Canada. Technical Delegate, ITTF-ParaTT |
The competition started on Thursday 20 May at 9.00 am and finished on Saturday 22May at 17.00. The Opening Ceremony took place at 12.00 on the 20 May and was attended by His Excellency, the British Ambassador, Robin Barnett, the Director General. Adj. E.ON Romania, Sorin Apostu, the Mayor of Cluj, Otilia Badescu, and Sally Wood-Lamont, President of the National Paralympic Committee, Romania. The British Ambassador stayed on for about two hours talking to everyone, watching the play and again we thank him for his wonderful support and great interest in RITTO.
The volunteers were again truly amazing and this is due to Katie Rizvi’s training. The IPTTC officials, every umpire, the players themselves were unfailing in their praise for their capability, their attitude to the necessary work, their language ability and their overall willingness to make sure the competition was a success. The volunteers really showed Romania in its best light and its young generation was admired throughout these days by everyone present!
It was a lot of work, but , in the end, all was worth it. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing event. I can't wait for next year.
Anca Andreea Pop. RITTO volunteer |
Problems
This year we had some minor problems with one of the new hotels used – the Golden Tulip. There were some managerial problems – in fact the manager was changed the day after the competition started – and also there was a problem with the cleaning of the hotel rooms. This was resolved before the competition ended and I believe there will be no recurrence.
An additional minor problem was with an over enthusiastic volunteer who because one player asked for an early morning call on the first morning decided without consulting anyone, that it would be a good idea to get the hotel to give all the players an early morning call. So on the first morning all participants staying at the Golden Tulip were rudely awakened at 6am (!) and for many in wheelchairs it was a real problem to get to the phone. In addition that meant that everyone – all 110 people arrived at breakfast at the same time – 06.45am – causing chaos in the restaurant. and leaving many without breakfast or a limited menu on the first morning. If volunteers are going to be put at the hotels it is essential that they realise they are liaison officers and all decisions regarding the hotels or the participants at the hotels should be first cleared with Sally or Aileen.
Hire of buses
As there were more people this year we had to hire six buses – Sprinters without seats from Natura Travel and three 20 seater minibuses from Pulp Fiction, a local charity gave us their specially adapted minibus and we were lucky enough to receive free of charge the Local Council RATUC specially adapted buses. Subsequently we had quite a large cost for transport but we had absolutely no problems and everyone had only praise for the transport organisation.
Sponsorship
RITTO’S principal sponsor was EON Romania and without their backing we would have had real trouble making ends meet. The Mayor’s Office gave 5000 euros and the British Council Romania gave 3000 euros while Asirom gave 500 euros. Local firms gave produce rather than money. With the overall economic recession it was very difficult to find any more sponsors and whereas last year we received many items free, this year only a discount was offered.
Results
The Romanian team did their best but it was a much higher level of competition this year.
Medals
Mihai Sargu – bronze medal – singles
Bobi Simion – gold medal – team event
World Ranking Points
NAME |
Class |
WRP |
NAME |
Class |
WRP |
Gabriela Constantin |
7 |
60 |
Bobi Simion |
6 |
140 |
Gabriela Nicola |
8 |
20 |
Victor Doană |
7 |
70 |
Maria Stănescu |
8 |
80 |
Mihai Miron |
8 |
20 |
Dan Nasui |
6 |
35 |
Gheorghe Brehariu |
8 |
30 |
Dacian Makszin |
3 |
135 |
Alexandru Bordea |
10 |
60 |
Petru Ifrosa |
4 |
290 |
Mihai Şargu |
10 |
330 |
RITTO this year had more media than it ever has before demonstrating that it has become an annual highlight in Cluj, proving that sport for the disabled has its place in Romanian society and dispelling the myth that this type of sport is inferior in any way to that without disability. It also continues to promote Cluj as an international city capable of organizing a high level European event.
The joint efforts and team work of the Lamont Centre and the Little People Association achieved this wonderful success again and I hope this excellent collaboration will continue for years to come.
Thank you everyone – especially our sponsor EON Romania - Romania, volunteers, supporters, staff and players!
Sally Wood-Lamont, 29 May 2010
