by Peter Johansson, Swedish Table Tennis Association Communications Co-ordinator
Recently, Jörgen Persson has undertaken coaching roles on an ad hoc basis, most notably earlier this year guiding Mattias Falck to the final of the men’s singles event at the Liebherr 2019 World Championships in Budapest.
Jörgen Persson’s new role will focus on preparing the men’s team for the forthcoming 2020 World Championships in Busan and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Men’s captain
Peter Blomquist will continue as the men’s captain with overall responsibility for long-term planning; Jörgen Persson’s principal responsibilities will be coaching and player development. Resident in Halmstad on the west coast of Sweden, Jörgen Persson will thus have an extra eye on the players living and training that area.
“I am very proud and honoured over this renewed trust, it is always a big honour to wear the blue and yellow colours no matter if you are a player or coach. I am convinced that my knowledge and experience from my very long career will help our players in many ways. I have acted as a stand-in coach during the spring and summer and my feelings are only positive. It is great fun to be back on the international scene and I feel that the co-operation with both the players and coach Peter Blomquist has worked really well.” Jörgen Persson
Medals at recent tournaments
Positive from Jörgen Persson, it was the same from Mikael Andersson, the High Performance Director for the Swedish Table Tennis Association.
“It would be madness not to use Jörgen with all his knowledge and experience; no matter who is coaching or responsible we are in a really positive trend now with medals on the last five big championships.” Mikael Andersson
Women’s team coach
A new name in the men’s team coaching line-up, it is the same for the women. John Wall, who has been acting coach for the last months will now be hired until the Olympics in 2020.
“Working with the women’s team during the last months have been really fun. Now, I will have more time to work individually with all the players on the journey to Tokyo. It is a great group of women with young hungry players who are working hard to improve.” John Wall.
Significantly John Wall played in the top division of the Swedish League for Eslövs, Sparvagen and Rekord; recently he has been coaching elite level high school players