The Table Tennis 53 - ITTF

Report from Yokohama
ITTF Museum Exhibition
The World Championships in Yokohama are
finished and we congratulate the Organizing
Committee for a heroic job well done. The
LIEBHERR ITTF Museum Tour continued with
an exhibition at the arena, which proved quite
popular with the fans - over 10,000 visitors
during the 8-day event. Special thanks to Tour
sponsor LIEBHERR, Tour partners JOOLA and
DHS, and to David Yip of Okinawa, my very
capable coordinator, along with the dedicated
team of volunteers & security.
The exhibit was divided into 5 zones: the Japan
zone, with only Japanese items, a Technical
zone, which showed racket and ball evolution,
a Cultural zone, which included the celebrity
photo gallery, Timeline history, and a semi-open
air theater, with hourly films of vintage world
champions in action.
The 16-meter illustrated Timeline history was by
far the most popular exhibit, drawing daily
crowds from one end to the other. The Celebrity
Photo Gallery provided much entertainment as
usual, and the Ball Evolution display case
consistently had the most fingerprint smudges
at the end of each day, a clear sign of an interesting
exhibit.
I am pleased to report that 17 World
Champions came into the exhibit and kindly
posed for photographs, while pointing to their
place in history on our Timeline. The photos
below summarize the Yokohama experience.
See page 21 for the official collectibles. Enjoy!
Above right: The entrance, always staffed by a
very polite white-gloved security
guard
Right: The Technical Zone, ball & racket
evolution, + live matches on tv
Below Right: Part of the Celebrity Photo Gallery
Below: The Japan Zone, honoring the Emperor,
as well as Ichiro Ogimura, Hikosuke
Tamasu, and Japanese Table Tennis
tradition.
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