ITTF NAMES HARIMOTO, HIRANO, CHILA FOR STAR & STAR COACH AWARD

Switzerland – The International Table Tennis Federation(ITTF) has announced nominees for the 2016 Breakthrough Star and Star Coach awards.

The Breakthrough Star award recognizes a rising stars in the sport while the ITTF Star Coach acknowledges the people behind top players and celebrates their spectacular performance on the international stage.

Nominees for the 2016 Breakthrough Star & Star Coach are team England made up of Liam PITCHFORD, Paul DRINKHALL & Sam WALKER. The team reached the Semi-finals of the World Team Championships for the first time in 33 years, as well as Rio 2016 Olympic Games Quarterfinals for the first time for Great Britain.

Also nominated is Tomokazu HARIMOTO (JPN), who started the year ranking 10th in the world amongst under 18 players, and by July, Harimoto was ranked number 1 after a historic win at the ITTF World Tour Japan Open Under 21 event at just 12 years of age.

Miu HIRANO (JPN) became the youngest ever Women’s World Cup Champion, and the first ever Japanese player to win the title at the age of 12.

Nominees for the Star Coach presented by Butterfly are Patrick CHILA (FRA), who Led Emmanuel LEBESSON and Simon GAUZY to the European Championships Men’s Singles Final, the first time two Frenchmen ever contested the final, and the first French champion since 1976.

Alan COOKE (ENG) – Led the English men’s team to the semi-finals of the World Team Championships for the first time in 33 years, as well as the Great Britain team to the Olympic Quarterfinals for the first time.
LIU Guoliang (CHN) – Led the Chinese men’s team to all the major titles in 2016: World Team Champion, Olympic Team & Singles Champions and Men’s World Cup Champion.




Fans are to vote for their Male & Female Star players, as well as for the Star Point of the year on ITTFStarAwards.com! Voting closes on 13 November 2016.

The winners of the 2016 Male & Female Table Tennis Star will based on 50% on fans’ votes, and 50% on results from the expert panel judging, made up of their peers, and media experts, while the Star Point will be fully based on fans’ choice. The remaining awards (Star Coach, Breakthrough Star, Male & Female Para Table Tennis Star, and the Fair Play Star) will be dependent on expert judging.