RITTO 2008

200 of the worlds leading table tennis players from 33 countries came to Cluj Napoca, Romania to play in the 2nd Romania International Table Tennis Open RITTO.

RITTO is the largest international sporting tournament to happen within Romania and one of the largest Para-Olympic events to take place within the Central-Eastern European Region.

The following countries participated

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Canada, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Brazil, Ukraine

RITTO is the largest volunteer event in Cluj this year, over 1400 tasks required volunteers. Most of the volunteers came from Cluj’s high schools and universities, who willingly gave their time to help with all aspects of making this event a success, from fundraising, interpreting, transporting officials-players-press-VIPs, acting as ball-girls/boys, cleaning, posting results, preparing lunch bags and presenting medals. (RITTO provides fantastic exposure to a whole new level of community service) the following pages contain some of the key photos of RITTO and the events that took place over the 4 days.

RITTO has been recommended as a factor 40 tournament for 2009 (only 4 countries worldwide have the privilege of being able to hold a factor 40 tournament)

RITTO was organized and managed by the Lamont center and the LIttle People on a non profit basis. All sponsorship raised went to cover the cost of RITTO.

TVR, PRO TV and ANTENNA 1 Covered the arrival of the team

Team arrivals - The Chinese team.

This is the 1st time the whole Chinese team has come to Romania.

The team was greeted by the main organizers of RITTO, 2 senior ITCP officials and the main sponsors of RITTO:

e-on group We welcomed them the tradition Romanian way with bread - telemea, onions, Slănina and a shot of Ţuica (which they really liked)

Opening ceremony

the volunteers

The VIPs

The press

Chinese cultural affairs officer

The games

THE PRIDE OF CLUJ - the volunteers!

students from all of Cluj’s high schools helped as volunteers, last year they were voted the best by the International Para-Olympic community! This year the tournament hosted the best teams and the worlds best players, all the players - umpires and coaching staff said that the volunteers are the best they have ever encountered.

Making it happen

The medals

RITTO could not have happened unless we had the support of the fantastic sponsors! 70% of the sponsorship came from businesses within Cluj, and the remaining from within this region of Romania. http://www.ritto.ro/sponsors.html

RITTO received countless media slots (International-national-regional) TV - Radio - Newsprint and internet. This ensured the maximum amount of exposure for the sponsors, with their brand being associated with the largest International sporting and community event to take place in Romania.

RITTO was a true community event and we would like to thank all the sponsors and volunteers for making this event such a success!

Stay tuned for RITTO 2009.