Lausanne, Oct 18, 2013: ZEN-Noh has been officially unveiled as the title sponsor of the 2014 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships to be held in Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan on 28 April – 5 May 2014.
During the unveiling ceremony, which was attended by over 30 press agencies, the World Championship’s logo was also announced. The logo design symbolises the synergy between table tennis and the Japanese culture.
ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations) is a federation of agricultural cooperatives in Japan whose main business is farm production, livestock and processed food. ZEN-NOH is also currently sponsoring Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) who is ranked 9th in the world.
ITTF’s President Adham SHARARA stated: “It is encouraging to see the preparations for the World Championships in Tokyo being at a very advanced stage. This gives the ITTF confidence that another great event will be staged by the Japan Table Tennis Association.”
“I take this opportunity to welcome ZEN-NOH as the title sponsor, and I am sure that they will be more than satisfied with the tremendous exposure they will receive through world-wide TV coverage,” he added.
Japanese Table Tennis Association Vice President Koji KIMURA shared the delight of the ITTF President: “I would like to express my sincere appreciation to ZEN-NOH, who kindly accepted the title sponsorship for the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships. Table tennis players and fans in Japan have special feelings and preference for team table tennis, so it should be a great event.”
Masanobu YOSHINAGA, the Senior Executive Vice President of ZEN-NOH, stated: “We are honored to be the title sponsor of ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships.”
“ZEN-NOH has been supporting children who are striving for their dreams in the various sports for a long time. We hope that by seeing the championships, many children will be inspired to start playing table tennis in the pursuit of 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he added.
Expectations will be high from the Japanese public to attain gold at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, from both their women’s team who won silver at London 2012 and their men’s team who are ranked 3rd in the world.
Japanese superstar and world number 14 Ai FUKUHARA is aiming to match these expectations and go one step higher on the podium than London 2012: “I am looking forward to getting together with my team mates. We will all do our best to do better than we did at London.”
These sentiments were echoed by the men’s team Kenta MATSUDAIRA: “There will naturally be a great, supportive atmosphere towards Japanese players and I want to win the gold. I also want to bring the hopes to the people in the disaster area affected by the earthquake.”
About ZEN-NOH
ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations) is a federation of agricultural cooperatives in Japan. ZEN-NOH was formed in 1972 with the joining of the ZENHANREN group (National Marketing Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations) and the ZENKOREN group (National Purchasing Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations). ZEN-NOH consists of 1,173 agricultural cooperatives and federations. ZEN-NOH is involved in the marketing, tracking, and quality assurance of the products of its cooperatives. ZEN-NOH is one of the world’s largest importers of animal feeds and agricultural fertilizers. ZEN-NOH is also largely involved in the production of farming equipment, primarily tractors. Find out more about ZEN-NOH at http://www.zennoh.or.jp/
About the ITTF World Team Championships
The ITTF World Team Championships occurs every second year, rotating with the individual World Championships. The first World Table Tennis Championships was held in London in 1926.
Each country is represented by up to 5 players (only 3 can play each match) and teams are allocated to different divisions according to their final ranking at the previous World Team Table Tennis Championships and the ITTF World Team Rankings. The winner of the first division, called the Championship Division, will be crowned as the new champion.
Each match consists of each country nominating 3 players from their team. These 3 players play singles against the other team, and the first team to win 3 singles matches is deemed the winner.
At the 2012 World team Championships in Dortmund, Germany, there were 120 men’s teams and 92 women’s team, with China wining both the gold medals.
About International Table Tennis Federation
The International Table Tennis Federation is responsible for the global sport of table tennis and has 218 affiliated National Associations. Table Tennis is an Olympic Sport, introduced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics Games. Table Tennis is also a Paralympic Sport. —- ITTF/Photo JTTA
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