By Neha Aggarwal
After working for 19 years as a Danish national coach and sporting director, Peter Sartz is back in the Swedish national team as the head coach for the women’s team. He, along with coaches Peter Blomquist, Peter Andersson and Ulf Carlsson as working tremendously hard to raise the standard of Swedish women.
All the hard work, the results are evident.
One can say that Peter has got a flying start with an all-Swedish final at the 2017 Swiss Open, where Matilda Ekholm defeated Li Fen. Additionally, last weekend Matilda Ekholm reached the finals of Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour India Open in singles and together with Georgina Pota from Hungary, she won women’s doubles titles.
Indeed, the formula is working.
At the 2017 Swedish Junior and Cadet Open, Peter’s job to refine the young talent, as there is a lot of it in Sweden right now. Last year Filippa Bergand and Erika Fronth won the junior girls’ doubles and Filippa Bergand went on to the finals in junior singles.
“Feels good to be home of the Swedish national team again. I have been on one Olympic Games for Sweden and four for Denmark. Now the goal is to take a Swedish women’s team to the Olympics and I do not see that’s impossible,” said Peter Sartz.
He has much experience with him as coach and still sees opportunities to develop even more. “I have my heart in table tennis. Developing people and especially young talent is among the best I know,” he said.
In Sweden, there are a lot of talented players who are part of various clubs and play in the league. A developed network of contacts between coaches and clubs exists and Sartz wants to utilize that opportunity to the best. “Now it’s just to find the right forms of our cooperation,” he added.
Well certainly, the man is on a mission. The 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships will be held in Halmstad, Sweden and thus all eyes will surely be on the men’s and women’s teams.
“My goal is that in the future we should raise ourselves individually and as a team, and be able to be fight for medals at the championships. In 2020 we’ll be hitting that law also against the Asian nations,” he said in this interview with the ITTF in November 2016.
