The event was the best organised championship I have attended in 9 years

Steve Ward, Director British Paralympic Table Tennis

3rd Romanian International Table Tennis Open (RITTO)

for People with Physical Disabilities

21-23 May 2009

REPORT

Twenty-five countries with 116 participants attended the 3rd Romanian International Table Tennis Open from the 21-23 May 2009. The countries represented this year were, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey while the umpires came from Hungary, Romania, Serbia and the Czech Republic, the Classifiers from Malaysia and Israel, the Referee from France while the Technical Delegate was from Austria.

We used 4 hotels; the Opera Plaza hotel and the Hotel Best Western Topaz for wheelchair players and the Hotel Sport for the umpires and all standing International players. The Hotel Stadion housed the Romanian team.

The Local Organizing Committee comprised Katie Rizvi and her excellent team from the Little People Association; Aileen Wood, a friend from Britain organized the competitors’ arrival bags, sorted out all the arrival problems with accommodation and generally helped wherever they could; Anca Chereches was Technical Venue Director at the Sports Hall; Ileana Aciu, Elisabeta Serbanescu made up the computer team; Allegra Roccato from Venice was the Results Secretary; Elisabeta Vuscan, was the accommodation liaison officer. Serghei Pinzaru was in charge of the transport and Micky Inoue was the Procurement Officer both from the Little People Association.  Katie, Vice-President from the Little People Association was in charge of the 600 volunteers from schools in Cluj, and with her volunteer team had the following responsibilities; to provide ball boys/girls for every wheelchair match from 8am – the last match of the day, to make sure that there was water in every drinking fountain, to help with the distribution of the lunches and the clearing of tables in the food tent and the making up of the lunch bags; making sure the toilets were clean and had soap and toilet paper at all times; serving coffee and biscuits to all umpires and IPTTC staff  and ascertaining that all international visitors were looked after at the Sports Hall. An additional responsibility that the Little People took on was the organizing of the Medal ceremony. Katie had hired national Romanian costumes and trained two of her young volunteers as master of Ceremonies. Four volunteers, two male and female were dressed in national dress and the medal ceremonies were performed in a very professional manner receiving praise from everyone concerned.  In addition Katie was the Media Officer, keeping the press up to date with all the latest information, organizing interviews with the players, placing the banners from the sponsors etc. Again volunteers from last year took on senior positions as team leaders this year and this was an excellent idea ascertaining the best possible volunteer organization possible. Everyone in the LOC knew their specific role; everyone worked together as a team and if now and again there were some collisions it did not matter: the main objective was achieved - to make sure that everyone was happy and enjoyed their stay in Cluj.

The competition started on Thursday 21 May at 9.00 am and finished on Saturday 23 May at 16.00. The Opening Ceremony took place at 12.00 on the 21 May and was attended by the Director General. Adj. E.ON Romania, Marc Daniel Buck, Otilia Badescu, Aurora Dragos, the Director DCS Cluj  and Sally Wood-Lamont, President of the Romanian Federation for Sport for the Disabled. Marc Buck stayed on for about two hours talking to everyone, watching the play and again we thank him and his employees for all their support and great interest in RITTO.

The volunteers were again truly amazing and this is due to Katie Rizvi’s training. The IPTTC officials, every umpire, the players themselves were unfailing in their praise for their capability, their attitude to the necessary work, their language ability and their overall willingness to make sure the competition was a success. The volunteers really showed Romania in its best light and its young generation was admired time and time again throughout these days by everyone present! On Saturday 40 EON volunteers participated and worked with the young volunteers and it proved to be a very beneficial experience for everyone.

Problems

This year we had few problems. The office equipment was excellent though maybe if we had another 80 participants we might have required another photocopier.  Cluj airport has now upgraded their facilities and an ambulance and 2 special aisle chairs for the embarking and disembarking of passengers have been bought. Cluj now has an airport offering all services conforming to European standards. 

Hire of buses

As there were less people this year we decided not to hire any of the large city buses but instead we hired one bus from Nemeth Speed, Pulp Fiction gave us two buses free of charge, a local charity gave us their specially adapted minibus and we used the Local Council RATUC buses sparingly. Subsequently we had no extra costs for transport. 

Sponsorship

RITTO’S principal sponsor was EON Gas Romania and without their backing we would have had real trouble making ends meet. The County Council only gave 1000 euros and the Mayor’s Office said that they would assist but we are still waiting on actual confirmation. The local Rotary Club gave us 1000 euros, and some other local firms gave produce rather than money. With the overall economic recession it was very difficult to find any more sponsors.

Results

The Romanian team had their best results ever competition winning 9 medals and it shows now that this tournament has achieved its aim of raising the national level of play.

Medals

Gabriela Constantin:  Gold - Team event; Bronze - Singles

Gabriela Nicola:  Bronze – Team event;  Bronze - Singles

Maria Stanescu: Bronze – Team event

Bobi Simion: Bronze – Team event;  Silver - Singles

Ifrosa Petru: Bronze - Singles

Doana Victor: Bronze – Team event

World Ranking Points

RITTO has become an annual highlight in Cluj, raising awareness for sport for the disabled, dispelling the myth that this type of sport is inferior in any way to those without disability, promoting Cluj as an international city capable of organizing a high level European event.

The joint efforts and team work of the Little People Association and the Lamont Centre achieved this wonderful success and I hope this excellent collaboration will continue for years to come.

Thank you everyone –  especially our sponsor EON - Romania, volunteers, supporters, staff and players!

Sally Wood-Lamont, 26 May 2009

More information and photos at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLittlePeopleCluj

It (RITTO)  was exemplary!!! And I hope this would be in every tournament, that we have (little)people to pick up the balls also during warm up. it should be in all tournaments in future like it was in Romania. In addition, all these supporters have been extremely nice and were very helpful. Little people thank you for your great help!

Egon Kramminger, Austria

But i wanna thank you especially to "Little People" organisation. They are the best volunteers I have ever seen.   Little People... You are the biggest "Little People" ... thank you for your warm hearts... Thank you Sally Wood-Lamont

Tolga Ustun, Turkey