The smile we remember, Park Docheon at the 2008 Asian Univeristies Championships in Mongolia (Photo: ATTU) Chair of the Asian Table Tennis Union’s Technical and Umpires Committee, following a long illness, suffering from cancer, Park Docheon passed away on Friday 29th January. Born on Monday 1st January 1951, he was 70 years old. In addition to his position within the Asian Table Tennis Union, he was very much a key figure within the Korea Table Tennis Association. He became the International Director in 1981, an office he held to the present day, also during that period from 2013 to 2016, he fulfilled the role of Vice President. Most notably at the World Championships in 1991 in Chiba, he was the Public Information Officer for
Month: January 2021
Ever reliable Sarkis Sarkhojan passes away
Sarkis Sarkhojan (1947 - 2021) An international career spanning almost two decades, representing the Soviet Union, enjoying success at both World and European Championships, Sarkis Sarkhojan passed away on Sunday 24th January. He was 73 years old. Born on Wednesday 26th November 1947 in Batumi, a port city in Georgia located on the Black Sea, near the Turkish border, a left handed attacking top spin player, he first came to international attention at the 1965 European Youth Championships in Prague. He won the junior boys’ team title lining up alongside Aleta Frog, Stanislav Gomozkov and Gegam Vardanjan, before later in the tournament, losing to Vardanjan in the junior boys’ singles final. Success at youth level, for the next decade and more, he enjoyed success
Germany mourns the passing of Berni Vossebein
Berni Vossebein competing in over 80 men's singles at the 2006 World Veteran Championships in Bremen (Photo: courtesy of DTTB) The oldest living German champion, Berni Vossebein passed away, a result of a stroke, on Tuesday 12th January in his hometown of Bochum, he was 95 years old. One of the leading players in Germany in the 1940s and 1950s, he won seven doubles titles at the national championships and was twice the men’s singles runner up. Hans Wilhelm Gäb, DTTB Honorary President, paid a moving tribute to the “Lion of Bochum”, a name aptly christened by Heinz Eil, an ARD radio reporter. "With him an age in our sport comes to an end, the epitome of a fighting spirit at the table, a