Prior to this year, the most recent meeting was in 2017 when some 80 referees met in Asia and Europe.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 meant that no such meeting could be held in 2020; thus, the ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee recently held three on-line conferences, each in a different time zone.
- Saturday 22nd January
- Friday 28th January
- Friday 4th February
Over 140 participants took part, underlying the fact there is big interest in education and exchange of experiences.
Each conference lasted four hours and included an information session regarding referee career development, selection of referees and World Table Tennis.
“It was good to see all referees again after such a long period and it is really important to be in contact and discuss all changes and challenges. Also the mix of referees from different continents in one conference helped us to share our knowledge. Thanks to all participants for their active participation and hopefully we will see each other soon in an event” Werner Thury, Chair ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee
Proceedings continued with case studies, which dealt with problematic situations that had arisen in the last few years. It was obvious that such a rich pool of experience in this group helped to find solutions for challenges ahead and future consistency.
Pleasingly, the feedback after the conferences was really positive and all agreed to have such online conferences on a yearly basis.
