Now that accreditation has ended, the final number of participants in the 6th PingPongParkinson World Championships in Lignano has been determined. After several players cancelled in the last few days, 324 active players from 26 table tennis associations ultimately take part – 234 men and 90 women. This exceeds the previous record of 286 starters set two years ago in Wels by 38 people. This also means a new world record for the men, while the women’s world record for Parkinson players from this May at the Quooker PPP German Open in Oldenburg with 96 women survived.
The first day of competition ended today with a few surprises. In the men’s singles preliminary rounds, some players who had not been rated so highly emerged as group winners in the highest tournament class. This was particularly true for Roger Trautmann (FRA), who won his group undefeated as the third-seeded player. Jean-Marc Darragon (FRA), Norbert Hase (GER) and Barao Cardadeiro (POR) had been seeded second in their groups but finished first. In the four other groups, however, the top favourites prevailed, with only defending champion Thorsten Flues (GER) remaining undefeated in all his twelve games.
The women played their preliminary round doubles groups today and will start their singles groups tomorrow afternoon. It will be exciting to see whether everything goes according to plan or whether there will be any surprises.