“There’s so much bad luck”
Disappointed Timo Boll has to digest the severe shock of the World Cup
February 16, 2024, 1:34 p.m
Timo Boll has big goals with the German table tennis men at the team world championship. But the dream of the title is dashed for the record European champion before he can even step up to the plate for the first time.
The German table tennis team has to do without its most famous player at the entire team World Cup in South Korea. Shortly after the 3-0 opening win against the USA, record European champion Timo Boll announced that he would not be able to travel to Busan as planned due to inflammation of the iris in his eye.
“I’m really disappointed that I’ll miss the World Championships, especially because I felt really good physically and my form was good,” said the 42-year-old after further examinations in Germany. “But I have had this type of inflammation on the iris before and the doctors advised me to treat it accordingly and cure it so that the optic nerve is not permanently damaged.”
What is particularly bitter for Boll is that he had only just fought his way back to the top of the world after a serious shoulder injury last year. In January he won the international tournament in Doha. In Busan he actually wanted to recommend himself for a place on the German team for the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer. But instead of being able to play the 21st World Cup tournament of his career, he is now missing his third World Championship after 2023 in Durban (individuals) and 2022 in Chengdu (team).
“We can actually only become world champions now”
The German team now only includes Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (TTC Neu-Ulm), Patrick Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken) and Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt). Apart from Boll’s illness, their turbulent preparations for the World Cup were also affected by the fact that Olympic bronze medalist Ovtcharov had his hand luggage with his passport, wallet and table tennis rackets stolen on the way to the airport.
There were no sporting problems against the USA. The next opponent in the preliminary round is the outsider Saudi Arabia on Saturday (12.00 p.m./dyn). “We will do everything we can to play a successful World Cup, despite the unpredictability of Dimitrij’s stolen hand luggage and Timo’s illness,” said German sports director Richard Prause. Ovtcharov went even further with a wink: “There’s been so much bad luck that we can actually only become world champions. Or Olympic champions.”