Nanjing, August 21, 2014: Rio 2016 Organising Committee and Brazilian Olympic Committee President, Carlos Nuzman yesterday visited the Table Tennis event at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games being held at Wutaishan Gymnasium.
President Nuzman was treated to a superb performance from his countryman Hugo CALDERANO, who showed the world just how strong Brazilian and Latin American Table Tennis is becoming by making the semi finals.
Inspired by the visit of his National Olympic Committee President, Calderano went on to win the bronze medal, which was the first Olympic Table Tennis medal for any Latin American country.
On the visit of President NUZMAN, ITTF’s President Adham SHARARA stated: “The Table tennis venue in Nanjing was honored with the presence of Mr. Carlos Nuzman, President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and IOC member. We discussed the development of table tennis in Brazil and the excellent performance of Hugo CALDERANO in Nanjing.
I also explained the tremendous potential that Brazil has in table tennis and especially at the top level for 2020. Of course I also believe that Brazil will have a good performance in 2016, but the real result in my opinion will come in 2020.Here in Nanjing, Hugo made a historical performance by winning a medal amongst a very strong group of international players.”
In addition to Latin America’s strong showing at Nanjing 2014, North America also showed how much they improved in recent years, with Lily ZHANG claiming bronze in the Women’s Singles.
These are all positive signs for a strong showing from the American continents at Rio 2016, which will make President NUZMAN very happy indeed.
Focus now turns to the mixed teams event, which consists of one boy and one girl who have qualified for the singles event. Teams can be composed of players from different NOCs where only boy or girl qualified in singles. The mixed teams gold medal match will be played on Saturday 23 August 2014. —- Photo credit: Remy Gros/ITTF
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