Croatia and China serve up table tennis partnership

ZAGREB, 22 April (Hina) – The Croatian Table Tennis Association (HSTS), the Chinese Embassy to Croatia, and Shanghai University have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. 

This means the collaboration will enable Croatian table tennis to work with a nation that has long been a world leader in this sport.

An HSTS delegation led by director Renato Čengić was hosted at the embassy by Ambassador Qi Qianjin. The chancellor of Shanghai University, Li Yin, and the director of the Chinese Table Tennis Center, Shi Zhihao, among others, arrived in Zagreb.

The cooperation between the HSTS and China in the field of table tennis was established in 2020 and interrupted due to pandemic.

“This is the continuation of the cooperation which began before COVID-19… One of the options of our agreement is that we want to send our players to China. We are very satisfied with this project as an association, and we hope that our young players will benefit the most from it,” said Zoran Primorac, president of the HSTS.

“This is a great day for our association because there is no stronger partner than China in this sport… What interested us the most was the exchange of knowledge. We agreed to four coaches coming to Croatia in the first phase, who will stay here for three or four months and visit our clubs across Croatia. The coaches should arrive in September or October,” said Čengić.

The Chinese have expressed their willingness to help develop Croatian table tennis, but that cooperation should go both ways. They are interested in developing sports in which they are not as proficient, especially football, basketball, handball, or water polo. 

The HSTS organised a meeting at the Croatian Olympic Committee, where the Chinese delegation was hosted by Damir Šegota, head of the office for Olympic programmes.