Located in southeastern Slovenia, Otocec is the starting point for this year’s ITTF World Veteran Tour; play being held from today to Sunday 11^th September.

A small town on the banks of the picturesque River Krka, Otocec is no stranger to international competition; now a regular destination, the initiation started in 2016 when an ITTF World Tour tournament was organised.

Memorably, Olympic Games medallists, Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei won the respective men’s and women’s singles titles.

Undoubtedly a successful venture, the spark had been lit; for the next three years ITTF Challenge Series events were held, before last year in June a WTT Youth Star Contender tournament was staged. Earlier this year in April the event was repeated, before more recently on Monday 5^th September, a WTT Youth Contender tournament concluded.

The youngest age group on view was under 11 years, now it is the other end of the spectrum.

Players from 40 years to 80 and more years of age will be on duty, events played on a round robin basis or where there are two stages, group play followed by main draw and consolation, both conducted on a progressive knock-out formula. Thus, at the conclusion of each competition an order of merit is produced.

For the Oman 2023 World Veteran Championships; the winners of every event will gain a free entry; furthermore, all participants will receive a 10 per cent discount.

Overall, in addition to Slovenia, players from Albania, Austria, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Kosovo, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States have registered.