July 9, 2008
Olympic Games Final Allocation of All Quota Places
 Holland's Trinko Keen Photo By: Istvan Polonyi |
Courtesy of ITTF Now all the players are definitely known. |
Trinko Keen Replaced by Lucjan Blaszczyk
The Dutch National Olympic Committee rejected the recommendation of the Dutch Table Tennis Association (NTTB) to nominate Mr. Trinko KEEN for the Olympic Men's Singles event.
KEEN's results on the ITTF Pro Tour did not fulfill the national qualifying rules. Therefore the thirty-six year old will not be Olympian in 2008. The Games in Beijing would have been his fourth Olympic Games in a row.
"It would have been fantastic to compete in the Olympic tournament, especially in the home country of our sport. The national federation put in a maximum of effort to let me play. Unfortunately there's nothing more I can do", a disappointed KEEN said in the NTTB press release.
This decision is in favor of another European "oldie", Poland's Lucjan BLASZCZYK. The thirty-three year old was the best non-qualified player on the occasion of the Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament being held in Budapest, Hungary from May 8-11, 2008.
The Polish Olympic Committee as well as the Polish Table Tennis Association confirmed BLASZCZYK for the Men's Singles event in Beijing.
Tunisian Women not Nominated
The "Comité National Olympique Tunisien" did not nominate the Ms. Nesrine BEN KAHIA and Ms. Safa SAIDANI. The lucky players are Shaimaa ABDUL-AZIZ, Egypt and Victorine Agum FOMUM from Cameroon.
Ms. FOMUM will be the first Cameroonian table tennis player in the Olympic history since table tennis made its debut at the Seoul Summer Olympic Games in 1988. ABDUL-AZIZ and FOMUM qualified thanks to their performance at the All Africa Games held in July 2007. The Games in Alger, Algeria were also the Qualification Tournament for the African continent.
Players Qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games
Teams Qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games
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