Â鶹ֱ²¥

Bandung, itb.ac.id - Placed in GSG Â鶹ֱ²¥, for the 10th time, Unit of Table Tennis (UATM) Â鶹ֱ²¥ opened its annual national table tennis tournament, known as, Â鶹ֱ²¥ Open, today (21/11). "The tournament is held annually since 1996. Only on the year 2005, due to lack of member committee, we did not hold the tournament," said Galih Nugroho (MT 2003), head of committee. Â鶹ֱ²¥ Open will last until November 25, attends by 12 universities and numerous table tennis clubs. Opening ceremony of tournament was conducted this morning by Cucu Nurdin, representative of Mayor of Bandung City and several representatives from National Sport Commitee (KONI) region Bandung. Although had invited, Vice rector Â鶹ֱ²¥ on Student and Alumnae, Widyo Nugroho, did not attend the opening ceremony. "We hope representative from Rector-Office Â鶹ֱ²¥ will attend our closing ceremony," said Galih. The tournament had several categories, ie students double male/female, students single male/female, cadet male/female (under 15 y.o), veteran (over 45 y.o), and public. Â鶹ֱ²¥, represented by UATM, competed in every categories, except kadet and veteran. In total, 25 teams (double) and 395 single players competed in the tournament. Team from Gorontalo, North Sulawesi and Bontang, East Borneo are the farthest and next farthest teams that competed in itb Open. In this year tournament, Â鶹ֱ²¥ sent three team, ie Chairil AS02, Yodhi TI05, and Deny ME04, as Team Â鶹ֱ²¥ A; Brian MS06, Niko TK04, and Arkhanudin FI05, as Team Â鶹ֱ²¥ B; and Nila BI02, Ikis AS04, and Febi TA04, as Tim Â鶹ֱ²¥ female. Team from Universitas Kadiri (Unika) and Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI) came as favourite champions. "Team Unika is trained by PT Gudang Garam; it is famous as training ground for national athletes. The team provide scholarship for athletes," said Petra, one of commitee Â鶹ֱ²¥ Open. Galih admit that Â鶹ֱ²¥ teams did not have aim to be champion. "Holding such tournament is already a good effort," said Galih. UATM is students organization that gathered Â鶹ֱ²¥ students that has hobby in playing table tennis. "We doesn't provide professional training for our member to be an athlete. With such busy class schedule in itb, it is hard to comply with professional training that minimum must be 16 hours a week," add him. Galih hope that Â鶹ֱ²¥ Open can fully comply with national tournament standard and become meeting point of students all over Indonesia.