China News Service, November 24. With the end of the Table Tennis Federation finals in Zhengzhou, the restart series officially ended.

ITTF CEO Steve Denton burst into tears several times after the game, thanking China.

  He believes that without China's full support, international table tennis tournaments cannot be restarted smoothly. China has proven its ability to help sports return to the international stage.

At the same time, they also praised that China has done much better in controlling and handling the epidemic than any other country in the world, and said that "we feel very safe here."

Data map: ITTF CEO Steve Denton speaks.

Photo by Wang Xiaogen

  The ITTF restart event series consists of the ITTF Women's and Men's World Cup held in Weihai, China on November 8-15, and the ITTF Finals in Zhengzhou on November 19-22.

It is reported that this ITTF restart event includes athletes, coaches, referees, and ITTF staff from 27 countries and regions, and a total of 116 participants entered China.

  When the three events were all over, ITTF CEO Steve Denton expressed his most heartfelt gratitude to all those who participated in the event: "First of all, I want to thank China, without the full support of the Chinese people. , We cannot restart smoothly. Thank you very much to my friend Liu Guoliang and the Chinese Table Tennis Association. Under such a difficult environment, it is great to see the ITTF and Chinese Table Tennis Association teams unite and realize the restart event series! Thanks to the Chinese Olympic Committee and all participating government departments and officials for promoting this."

  Denton commented that the ITTF restart event series can be successfully held in China, which is a dream come true for the sport of table tennis, the ITTF, the world table tennis family, as well as athletes, fans and associations around the world.

"2020 is the most difficult year for each of us. The international table tennis matches have been suspended for eight months, and everyone has been trapped at home for a long time. We have been fighting the epidemic and trying hard to survive this crisis. Come down."

  As the chief executive of the ITTF, Denton said that getting the players back to the court as soon as possible was his original motivation for planning the restart of the series: "Our players should now truly understand that the significance of restarting the competition is more than table tennis. For deep. I have talked to some athletes. They only played one or two games in the entire tournament series, which means they flew to China specially for 14 days and stayed in China for only one game. They all said they were very happy and excited."

  "Before the game started, they couldn't believe that the event could be so perfect. When they came here, everyone was proud to be a member of this event bubble. At the same time, they also praised China's ability to control and deal with the epidemic. Much better than any country in the world, we feel very safe here."

  The Zhengzhou Finals is the ITTF’s first international event with spectators since March. When everyone heard the long-lost cheers and cheering for the players in the arena, as the organizer of the event, Denton several times Tears filled his eyes: "In Weihai, we welcome the return of players. In Zhengzhou, we welcome the return of fans. They are the core content of every sport... This is an important process for us, and we have done it." (Finish)