The ETTU Hopes Selection Camp took place at the National Table Tennis Training Centre in Havířov from 12 to 17 September. Eighteen players born in 2009 and 2010 from nine countries were training under the guidance of ten coaches. The other four talents, one year older, trained at the centre at the same time as part of the training camp.
The whole camp was led by experienced Croatian Neven Cegnar, the head coach was Renáta Štrbíková. A total of five Czech players took part in the camp, namely Jan Škalda, Jakub Kabelka, Tadeáš Vršovský, Elena Kuchařová and Hanka Kodetová. “We also had players from Ireland, Ukraine, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Spain, England, Slovakia and Slovenia. We cooperated with foreign coaches and an integral part was, of course, fitness training under the guidance of Patrik Kaizar,” said Renáta Štrbíková about the course of the camp.
Two boys and two girls were chosen by the Czech coach together with Neven Cegnar and coaches Dominique Plattner and Saša Dragaš for the December ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Amman, Jordan. Two Czech players, Jakub Kabelka and Hana Kodetová are among them. The meeting with the quarterfinalist of the European Championships in Warsaw and the participant of two Olympics Lubomír Jančařík was a special guest of the camp and in a way also a reward for all participants. The Czech national team member trained with the young players, and on the second table the balls were returned to the other side of the table by former national team member Renáta Štrbíková.
Before that, however, they answered questions about their beginnings, successes and visions for the future. “These camps for kids are great. They spend some time together, they can get to know each other, watch how they train in another countries, what what rutines they a have and so on. When I started at the age of nine, it was completely different. And as far as I know, there were no international camps for mini-cadets. The selected teams of Europe and Asia played against each other, but I don’t remember ever participating in such events. So for me, this is just great,” said Lubomír Jančařík.