This is the greatest success of Montenegrin club table tennis, this is real European gold, boasted the president of the Novi table tennis club. Ranko Boca "News" after winning the Conference League, the third-ranked competition under the auspices of the European Table Tennis Union.
"We have set goals, we have achieved one of them and this is one of the milestones that makes us very satisfied," said Boca.
The President of Novi believes that table tennis does not have a deserved place in Montenegro - he points out that the blame for this lies largely with the "table tennis community, which does not do enough to promote and does not do enough to elevate the sport in a professional sense."
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“Especially for the performance levels we strive for,” he adds.
"I'm not saying that we're anything special now, but that's just the way the situation is, there are a lot of factors why it's like that. I think the main element is that almost no club in Montenegro has, for example, its own gym, its own infrastructure, and that's a big problem. That's where all the problems start."
Boca stated that he is at the helm of the youngest table tennis club in Montenegro, founded in 2016. Since Novi made it to the Super League of Montenegro in 2017 by winning the First League, they have won seven championship titles.
The next project is the construction of a training center in Herceg Novi, which, according to him, should be completed by the end of the season.
"We have already held talks with the best European coach. By Jože Urho who is Slovenian, and who is the coach of the famous Darka Jorgića, currently the best professional table tennis player from the former Yugoslavia. He is currently ranked 13th in the world, and we have already started some discussions in principle to create a training center in Herceg Novi that would bring together about ten top European players who would train there.”
Boca explained that the training center is a prerequisite for European results
- It should be a locomotive for younger players, who could one day be European players. Such a project is, of course, a big and substantial task, both financially and structurally.
Boca boasted that the club has an excellent coach and a potent generation of table tennis players.
"For us, the basis of everything is working with young people. From the first generation in 2016, Jakša Krivokapić, which is with Stefan Radonjić made the biggest result in the cadet national team two years ago. The two of them entered the first division, won ninth place in Europe, which is the greatest success in our sport for younger categories ever. They had a match to enter the medal fight, which they lost to Slovakia. Then, however, they defeated Sweden and Germany, the biggest European names, federations that have 20, 30 players in the national team, and we showed up with two of them.
Boca finally emphasizes his love for table tennis as his biggest driving force.
"People who are enthusiastic about any sport, any profession know what emotion it is. For me, the people of my club are also an additional motivation. We are a sports collective in which emotions reign like in a family, every minute spent in the club is as if I spent it with my family. Table tennis is an extremely beautiful, fast and dynamic individual sport, ideal for anyone who wants to turn to sports professionally, and we are here to provide them with every support", concluded Ranko Boca.
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