Thai capital of Bangkok is playing host to the Asian Hopes Week and Challenge from Sunday 30th April to Tuesday 9th May. The Continental Hopes serve as continental qualifications, ideally following the ITTF World Hopes Week & Challenge model.
Accordingly, the 11-year-old Navid Shams of Iran overcame his compatriot Amin Samadi at the finals of the Asian qualification tournament 3-2. Samadi suffered the defeat while he had previously downed an Indian rival on road to the finals.
As such, Shams received garnered a place at Asia’s three-member outfit for the 2017 ITTF World Hopes Week and Challenge to convene in the China Table Tennis College-Europe (CTTC-E), in Luxembourg, from 11 to 17 August 2017.
For the 2017 edition, Asia receives three places for boys and three for girls as does Europe. Meanwhile, for each of Africa and Latin America it is two boys and two girls; whilst for North America and Oceania it is one boy and one girl. A place for one boy and one girl is reserved for the host association; thus places for three further boys and three further girls are available. A national association may apply for a maximum of one boy and one girl to attend
The Hopes Program is one of many ITTF development initiatives targeting Global Reach and Overall Growth of Table Tennis. The number one goal is to encourage National Associations not only to start with professionally managed Talent Identification Programs, but also to pro-mote and work with young talented players for future success and growth. The role is to organize opportunities that give talent the chance to emerge and be nurtured.
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