Table tennis: shoulder injury: Timo Boll cancels the start of the World Cup

table tennis
Shoulder injury: Timo Boll cancels the start of the World Cup

Timo Boll will not serve at the World Cup. photo

© Marius Becker/dpa

The Table Tennis World Championships in South Africa begin in eleven days. The best-known German player cannot be there due to a shoulder injury.

To take part in the Olympic Games again at the age of 43: That is Timo Boll’s big goal. In order not to jeopardize this, the record European champion canceled his participation in the Table Tennis World Championships in South Africa just eleven days before the start of the World Championships. A shoulder injury on the left hitting arm has not healed even after three months.

“I have to make this decision with a heavy heart because my focus is clearly on the Olympic Games in Paris next year,” Boll is quoted as saying in a statement from the German Table Tennis Association. “That’s why I have to get to the root of the problem and eliminate it comprehensively.”

At the age of 42, he knew exactly “that I have to set priorities at my age,” Boll continued. At the 2024 Olympics, he wanted to be “in top form and attack as best he could. A World Cup is too big an event for you to be able to compete there with practically no training and preparation. It would also not be fair to my colleagues, who deserved to take part and who I wish you the best of luck and success.”

Filus nominated for World Cup

For the first time since 1939 in Cairo, a table tennis world championship in Africa will take place in Durban from May 20th to 28th. The German team is led by individual European champion Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf) and Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov (TTC Neu-Ulm). Patrick Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken), Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) and Ruwen Filus (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell), who was nominated for Boll, are also there.

Because of his shoulder problems, Boll had already missed the Champions League final of his club Borussia Düsseldorf against 1. FC Saarbrücken this spring and the Bundesliga playoffs that started last week.

However, he only proved at the previous Individual World Championships in Houston in 2021 that he is still one of the world’s best athletes, even at an advanced age affected by a painful abdominal muscle injury. On the other hand, in his six previous Olympic appearances, Boll never got further than the quarter-finals. With the German team, on the other hand, he has already won silver and bronze twice.

dpa

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