Arnold Challenge & Killerspin Table Tennis Championship 2007

Sponsor Ad: TableTennisStore.US - 1000 XIOM, TSP, JOOLA, CHAMPION table tennis products!

Everyone finds it hard to pronounce his last name, but Arnold Schwarzenegger is a hero in everyone’s mind. He is famous for his roles in Terminator movies. Arnold, once a body builder, then an actor, is the Governor of California now. His self titled body building event takes place in Columbus, Ohio every year – I think this is the largest multi-sport fitness event in the world – events include gymnastics, judo, weightlifting, fencing, cheerleading, speed skating, archery etc…

This year was no different, they had Killerspin Table Tennis events too, and most interestingly the Killerspin Arnold Challenge. Arnold is also a fan of Table Tennis, and with Killerspin they made a perfect match. ESPN Sports has a special recording section for Table Tennis at Arnold Expo every year. I love Killerspin guys – they raise the standard of this game in the Untied States. They bring the world’s top table tennis players to the United States – a cavalcade of top world class players. If you had seen some table tennis events on ESPN, it was made possible with Killerspin. Killerspin events are extreme – power, speed and aggression everything in an event, and are very inspirational too.

My Journey to Columbus, Ohio to watch the challenge:

I was skeptical – whether or not I could make to the event starting on March 2 nd. The bad weather put many flights in JFK to test, and there was delay for almost all flights. Jetblue which I chose to fly made me so nervous after I heard the news that the passengers stranded for 8 hours in their flight last week.  In a nutshell, the journey to Columbus, OH was not bad – there was only an hour of delay at JFK, New York.

The Hotel:

The Midwest Hotel and ConferenceCenter at Columbus is an official hotel for Arnold events. The hotel is not bad, but I liked very much their continuous shuttle services to anywhere I wanted to go – they drop you off and pick you up from anywhere within 5 miles, even from restaurants. I might not have mentioned in my request, the room I got had cigarettes smell everywhere. Jet lag or the smell, I did not sleep well the first day.

The first day at the Killerspin Arnold Challenge:

I had a chance to talk to Robert Blackwell, the founder and CEO of Killerspin for few moments. I felt he is a very intelligent Table Tennis sports entrepreneur. He is very down to earth, and hangs around the event locations to make sure the world class players who come to play are treated well.

Obviously, the large numbers of people who come to the Arnold Expo are people who love body building, boxing, and locals who love these events – not really serious enough to watch Table Tennis events. However, the exhibition matches like open and Arnold challenge attracted many spectators. I heard many parents talking to their children to take this sport seriously, and few asked me questions about this game like rules, paddles uses and the players playing. I had no surprise; it is the game of ‘Ping Pong’ in their mind.

Arnold’s visit to the arena:

Two huge German Shepherd sniffing the whole building symbolizes Arnold’s coming to the building. Keep away the speed glue when you are in such a situation because the speed glue contain some explosive materials. He spent 50 minutes watching Biba Vs Sasa table tennis game in the arena.

Arnold Challnge:

There is a false information that spread around says Killerspin championship events are fake. I would say that is hundred percent wrong. The players are friends and they practice each other and talk a lot – but at the battleground, they are still fighting.

KillerSpin Players:

Ilaja Lupidesku

I like lupi – because he is an all-round player. He is married – I saw the ring on his finger. He lives in Chicago, and is a 5 time Olympian. Among other players I watched, he has less stamina.

Andrei Filimon

Filimon is from Romania and is a stylish player. He has a very lean muscles, tattooed on his back. He is always pleasant on his face –whether he is losing or gaining.

Alexander Karakasevic

Alexander Karakasevic is from Serbia. He is a left handed looper. How is he maintaining his hair? I don’t know about that, but his hair rising up is fun to watch. In the open games, he played against Lupi. The ball was broken two times after both hitting the ball with heavy top spin. The area where the open took place, did not have enough space for players like him. He jumped out the barricade and sat on the chair few times when he did not find room – unfortunately Lupi did not score any points. When he was playing against Filimon, at some point the ball was very much wet, and Filimon could not take the server. How gracious he was to do the serve again? In another occasion he gave the point to Lupi after the ball is broken – I think the rule is to play the point again if the opponent has any objections.

Thomas Keinath

Among all the players, I liked Thomas very much because of his unique character. Thomas is a focused player, very calm and quite. The first time I watched him when he was eating bagels. After he had one bagel, he went on for the next set. I saw him taking around a bottle of milk also. He is close to the Killerspin MC- don’t know his name – I saw Thomas talking to him and asking questions about his cellphone. I assume he is from Germany, so naturally has hard time communicating to the people around. Another occasion I saw him was showing his Killerspin shoe to Biba and Kalli (Kalinikos Kreanga).

Chuan Chih-Yuan

Chuan is from Chinese Taipei. He is ranked world’s top 15. I first saw him practicing with Adam Hugh. He is very fast, moves likes flies. I felt he is a two wing looper from both forehand and backhand. I noticed how low he keeps the ball over the net.

Adam Hugh

I watched adam’s fight against Thomas Keinath for the fifth position of Arnold Challenge. This boy has tremendous potential to grow. He is better than other rated players I watched – fast footwork and good backhand loops.

Chris Xu

Chris Xu (formally Ngo) is from British Columbia, Canada. Though I remember her face, I was reluctant to talk to her. It was in the afternoon I watched her playing against a 2200 rated US player. From her play, I immediately understood she was Chris Xu – someone I wanted to meet for long time. Chris is a classic defensive player. She uses long pips in her back hand, to chop every ball. I did not see her hitting or smashing any ball.

Biba

I saw Biba practicing with Lupi before the match against Chris Xu. Chris Xu is a defensive player, so Lupi was helping Bibi to loop the under spin balls. I believe that was paid off after she beat Chris Xu. Biba has many fans. “BIBA BIBA” the screams I heard from the crowd came from two small girls in the crowd.

Kalinikos Kreanga

Kalli – all his friends call him, is from Greece. He is an athlete more than a table tennis player. He is very lean, and has the best backhand in the world. His backhand loops are so powerful – it hits the table like a bullet.

Killerspin Open

This is one of the glorious moments I ever had in my life. It is hard to describe it. I watched all the open matches just few feats away. I watched Filimon, Lupi, Alaxander, Thomas play.

I watched US top rated players rated 2200 – 2300 playing against players like Thomas Keinath. Our players lack faster footwork, consistency and can score only less than few points against world class players. However I’m glad that there are opportunities like these for our players to play against world class players.

Rated Events

Never under estimate the young players – I’m taking about boys 14 or 15 years old. They are fast and furious. They have the form, correct strokes and even coaches to train them traveling with them. To my dismay, these young guys use speed glue like the world class top players do.

Taking it seriously:

The people of America love extreme sports like American football. They love fast sports like basketball. The number of hours the Americans sits in front of a TV to watch NBA, NFL or Super Bowl is amazing. The mindset of Americans of a game played with two paddles and an orange ball is still Ping Pong, not table tennis. There is less attention to this game as one of the powerful sport. Watch couple of Killerspin Table Tennis events on ESPN, look at the speed and power of this game – that tells you how seriously you have to take this game.

Sponsor Ad: TableTennisStore.US - 1000 XIOM, TSP, JOOLA, CHAMPION table tennis products!