More than 2100 players from 36 countries already registered
The end of the year 2010 was also the original deadline for early-bird applications to the EVC 2011 which will be held in Liberec, Czech Republic June 20-25, this year. The organizers however extended the deadline for early-bird entry fee (EUR 120 for players and EUR 40 for spouses) till the end of March, 2011. This is obliging gesture to all who still missed to apply for the largest veteran event of the year.
As to December 31, 2010 there are 2.166 players who paid for participation : 1.701 men (79%) and 465 women (21%). About one third of players is from Germany (765, i.e. 35%), second highest attendance is registered from hosting country (309), followed by England (154) and Slovakia (112). More than 100 players will for sure come from Russia (100 at the moment) and hopefully also from France (90 at the moment) and from neighbouring Austria (77).
The highest attendance will be in M50 category with almost 20% of the total number of registered players (408). Tournaments will be organised in all categories, even 6 players applied in W85 category.
Organizers of EVC 2011 still believe in 200-300 players more. "We are registering dozens of applications with pending payment and also in January we are receiving 3-5 new requests every day", says Milan Simacek, EVC 2011 Director.
All participants who register and pay online on evc2011.com are automatically listed at the online list of participants. Registration office staff adds manually other registrations to the system so that everybody can see who else he can meet in Liberec. "There was a big boom of registrations at the end of the year and we are currently in delay with confirmations. We hope to list online everyone by the end of January", believes Hana Kastankova, chief of the EVC 2011 Registration Office.
The participants record of Porec 2009 will probably not be reached, but only two previous EVC reached more than 2.000 participants. There were 2.098 participating players in Rotterdam 2007 and 2.568 players in Porec 2009.
EVC 2011 is open to any table tennis player who is aged 40 or more in 2011. There is no need to be registered neither in a club nor association. The only requirement is to fulfill Event Terms and Conditions and to cover the entry fee amounting to EUR 120. Participation to EVC guarantees at least 2-3 matches in preliminary group + minimum 1 either in main competition or in consolation. Both in singles and doubles, so every registered player will play 6 matches minimum. Participation to EVC furthermore promise the chance to compete or at least to meet and talk with plenty of famous players of the past incl. European and World champions as well as to party every night with similarly passionated friends from all over the Europe.
