by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
In form players and there are more; winners at the World Team Championships staged just under one month ago in the Bratislava are also on duty.
Notably, the host nation’s Thomas Bruchle and Thomas Schmidberger, the Men’s Class 3 winners in the Slovakian capital city, compete, as do Italy’s Andrea Borgato and Federico Falco, the Men’s Class 1 champions.
Similarly, Turkey’s Abdullah Ozturk, Nesim Turan and Suleyman Vural all compete in Bayreuth, as do Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski, Igor Misztal and Pawel Jablonski. In Bratislava, the Turks won Class 4, the Poles succeeded in Class 10.
Also, the name of Martin Ludrovsky, who partnered Slovakian colleague, Jan Riapos, to gold in Men’s Class 2 will be on duty as will Ukraine’s Maksym Nikolenko, the player who joined forces with Mykhaylo Popov to claim Class 7 gold in Bratislava.
It is very similar for the women. Russia’s Raisa Chebanika and Ulija Shishkina, the Women’s Class 6-7 winners at the World Team Championships compete, as does the Brazilian trio of Bruna Alexandre, Danielle Rauen and Jennyfer Parinos.
Additionally, Serbia’s Nada Matic who won the Class 4-5 title in harness with Borislava Peric-Rankovic and Russia’s Elena Prokofeva, who emerged successful with Anzhelika Kosacheva and Maria Galkina in Class 11, competes.
Meanwhile, in addition to recently crowned World champions, there are illustrious names on duty who struck gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Great Britain’s Rob Davies and Will Bayley are both present as is the French pairing of Fabien Lamirault and Stéphane Molliens. Likewise, Denmark’s Peter Rosenmeier, Belgium’s Laurens Devos, Korea’s Kim Younggun and Ukraine’s Viktor Didukh will all be in action.
Prominent names, it is the same for the women; the name of Kelly van Zon appears on the entry list as do the Polish names of Natalia Partyka, Karolina Pek and Katarzyna Marszal.
Undoubtedly an enthralling tournament awaits and in addition, quite possibly a guide to the European Para Championships to be held in Slovenia later this year. There may well be clear indications.