1-Accomodation

Tournament wheelchairs only: 65 players, 10 countries

2 main different Hotels.

Accomodations were OK.

Remark:

• People responsible for each country had to manage with reservations, using a list given by organisers. Some of them tried to book late and because of the number of participants in wheelchairs, they had to use a second list, where the prices were higher.Some people complained that for the future they expect that the organisers deal with booking of accomodations.

2-Venue

• The competition was held in the sport hall of Irish Wheelchair Association.
• 16 tables, accessible for wheelchairs
• No training tables available during the competition.
• All areas were closed.

• There were some accessible toilets in the hall

• Lunches were organised close to the hall during the competition:
• Hot dishes at lunch and diner
• Water, coffee, tea, etc. were available in the hall

• The hall was cold at the begining, but when noticed, one additional "heater working with gas" has been installed. The Sunday evening, there was no gas any more, and the hall got cold again.

3-Equipment

• (all ITTF approved)
• 16 Tables
• Balls (3*)
• Surroundings Score boards

4-Competition Days

• Friday 19th: Arrival, classifications
• Saturday 20^th morning : Double events
• Saturday 20^th afternoon : Single events
• Sunday 21^st : Open event
• Sunday evening : Medal Ceremony

5-Number of Participants

Players: 65

Number of escorts: 10

Referees/Umpires: 18

6-Transport

• Transport from airport/station to accomodation: good and punctual
• Transport between accomodations and venue : Very efficient, and organised.
• There was a unlucky group which had to wait in bus during a moment on motorway, because one of the mini-bus was broken. But they have been taken in charge and could reach the hotel later.

7-Officials

• classifiers: Nico VERSPEELT
• Referee: Pat CONNELLY
• Deputy referee: Lola
• They were highly helped by Clare O’NEILL, John BRIDGEMAN, Mary HUGHES

8-Meetings

• Meeting with organisers : Thursday 18th December.
• Meeting with organisers and some Team managers for countries : Friday 19^th December

9-Draws

• The schedule for all tables was prepared before.
• We discussed about what kind of draw and system to be used during meetings, and previously by e-mail. (cf. Remark 1). Finally, organisers used the opportunity of flexibility allowed untill now by ITTC. As a result:
• Some round-robins were held for each class, or merge of classes (with a maximum of 11 players)
• Previous to the Open table, there were some round-robins of 3 players. The 2 best of them could go in the final table, where was used the KO system.

10-Classification

classification for 8 players.

11-Results

• All results were daily updated, and all countries got the results at the end of the competition, before leaving.
• We checked with Clare the version and way of using the last official form for results dedicated to Gael MARZIOU, ranking Officer.
• Gael received all results in right delay. Some updates have to be made (SM5)

12-Other Staff

• Globally, the staff was enough
• Ball Boys: They were enough, during the whole competition.

13-Any Other Matter

Well, that was the second time I was TD. Much less stressing and exhausting this time compared to the Tournament in La Louviere, where I was crucified ten times a day by players and team managers…

But I still wish to bring on board 2 remarks.

Remark 1

You remember all discussions we had about the problem of cumulating jobs when being a TD. I wish there will be enough resources in the future to avoid such situation. Nevertheless, it was really not a problem in Dublin to manage the both.

Of course, my results as player were not very good, but that was expected, and I accepted the risk without any problem. Not many matters as a player.

My main problem was about my role as TD.

In sumary, the previous TD report (tournament in June) was explaining that everything was OK about the tournament. Honnestly, it was not. I mean that everything was effectivly OK (accomodations, hall, transport, etc.), but not from a fair sport point of view: In june, there were already some "giant round-robins in classes", and some round-robins of 3 players before the open. I remind you that it has been used previously in Stocke-Mandeville World Games, and because nobody complained or criticized it, Irish organisers applied the same systems at this moment (in June irish Open).

That was even well considered by all players, who had in this way the opportunity of playing a lot, and consequently collect many points to improve their position on the ranking list.

• First point: it is not fair for other players, I mean all those foreign players not able to come at the tournament
• Second point: the organisers have never been informed that what they did in june was not really fair, untill I had the chance to bring on board the problem, as TD for the competition. I explained by mail what was expected from ITTC: open first, smaller round robins, only direct-KO system for open, and so on….
• Third point: because of both the low-knowledge about the real TD role AND the flexibility given to organisers for competition ranked 20, I had no power to make any changes, even if most of organisers and team managers agreed with my point of view….

Remark 2

This second remark is in fact the same than one of the remarks I did in my pervious report about the Belgium event. This is not an easy demonstration of ‘cut and paste’ (I made some light changes!), but this is a critical point to solve for the future, and in my mind this should have been done much before….

As in La Louviere with Nico, I think we did a good work with Clare before and during the competition. Clare and all her staff made a huge work.

I spent lots of time and energy receiving all critics, complains about the tournament. At least, I was "filtering" all that negative inputs all days long, that let to organisers some resources to take care more quietly about the global organisation.

But that made me discover a critical point:

Who knows what is a TD ?

I was impressed by this fact: the role, responsabilities, competencies of the TD are ignored. Not totally of course, but enough so that it is very hard to be efficient as TD.

How can the TD make a good job, when people he has to work with don’t even know what is the job????

I had the same problem when being TD in La Louviere and Dublin, and let me confess that it was really disapointing to realize this: The TD has a critical job to do with everything involved in a competition so that the competition is as good as possible. But I could not do the good job I wished, just because basic definitions of TD role had never been precisely established with organisers.

In a result, I spent many hours trying to explain some standards about what should be expected –in my mind- from a TD. Then sometimes I wasted resources in explanations instead of improvments when possible.

We spent some dedicated moments with Nico Verspeelt and Clare O’Neill about that point, and I asked them to make a report, from their point of view, with the main idea

"what do you expect from a TD, when you are responsible for an international tournament?"

I hope it will help for the future.