Bohumil Váňa
Bohumil Váňa (born January 17, 1920 in Prague ; † November 4, 1989 there ) was a Czech table tennis player . He was individual world champion in 1938 and 1947.
Career
Váňa came from a Prague locksmith family. At the age of 9, his older brother Václav taught him to play table tennis in clubs and inns. His patron was Vendelín Veselý, who noticed his talent and took him to Wenceslas Square to the renowned Prague association “AC Sparta”. At the club, which specifically promoted talented young people, he trained from then on together with his great role model Stanislav Kolář , who became world champion in doubles in Prague in 1936.
Váňa's strengths were his variable serves and his hard hit balls with the forehand.
Between 1935 and 1955 he took part in 12 world championships. He won several gold medals: twice in singles, three times in men's doubles and three times in mixed. He was world champion five times with the Czech team. He was also 38 times Czechoslovakian champion.
In 1955 he ended his career and was offered a job as a youth coach on condition that he attended a coaching school. Váňa refused. He felt hurt in his honor, as a 13-time world champion and multiple national champion, he could not train the youth even without attending such a school and withdrew bitterly. He also did not appear at the 1986 European Championships in Prague.
Around 1977 Bohumil Váňa and his wife moved into a house in the Prague diocese court. Since 1987 he suffered increasingly from a mental illness and was only in contact with Bishop Josef Hrdlička and Stanislav Kolář. Shortly before reaching the age of 70, Váňa, who had remained a non-smoker all his life, died of throat cancer and was buried in Prague-Motol.
In 2000 Váňa was named table tennis player of the century in the Czech Republic.
book
Váňa wrote (before 1951) the table tennis book Pět stupňů k mistrovství světa (Five steps to become world champion).
successes
- Participation in 12 table tennis world championships
- 1935 in London: 2nd place with team
- 1936 in Prague: 3rd place with team
- 1937 in Baden: 1st place mixed (with Vera Votrubcova), 3rd place with team
- 1938 in London: 1st place singles, 2nd place mixed (with Vera Votrubcova), 3rd place with team
- 1939 in Cairo: 3rd place individual, 1st place mixed (with Vera Votrubcova), 1st place with team
- 1947 in Paris: 1st place singles, 1st place doubles (with Adolf Slar ), 1st place with team
- 1948 in London: 2nd place singles, 1st place doubles (with Ladislav Štípek ), 2nd place mixed (with Vlasta Depetrisová ), 1st place with team
- 1949 in Stockholm: 2nd place singles, 2nd place doubles (with Ladislav Štípek ), 2nd place mixed (with Květa Hrušková ), 2nd place with team
- 1950 in Budapest: 3rd place doubles (with Ladislav Štípek ), 2nd place mixed (with Květa Hrušková ), 1st place with team
- 1951 in Vienna: 1st place doubles (with Ivan Andreadis ), 1st place mixed (with Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu ), 1st place with team
- 1953 in Bucharest: 3rd place doubles (with Ivan Andreadis ), 3rd place with team
- 1955 in Utrecht: 2nd place with team
- International championships
- 1936 Sopot - 2nd place singles, 2nd place doubles (with Stanislav Kolář )
- 1937 Berlin - 1st place singles, 1st place doubles (with Götz Meschede )
- 1938 Krefeld - 2nd place singles, 1st place doubles (with Miloslav Hamer )
- 1939 England - 2nd place singles
- 1946 England - 1st place singles, 1st place doubles (with Adolf Slar )
- 1947 England - 1st place doubles (with Adolf Slar )
Results from the ITTF database
| Association | event | year | place | country | singles | Double | Mixed | team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCH | World Championship | 1955 | Utrecht | NED | last 32 | last 32 | last 32 | 2 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1953 | Bucharest | ROU | last 32 | Semifinals | no participants | 3 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1951 | Vienna | AUT | last 32 | gold | gold | 1 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1950 | Budapest | HUN | Quarter finals | Semifinals | silver | 1 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1949 | Stockholm | SWE | silver | silver | silver | 2 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1948 | Wembley | CLOSELY | silver | gold | silver | 1 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1947 | Paris | FRA | gold | gold | last 32 | 1 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1939 | Cairo | EGY | Semifinals | last 16 | gold | 1 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1938 | Wembley | CLOSELY | gold | last 16 | silver | 3 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1937 | to bathe | AUT | Quarter finals | Quarter finals | gold | 3 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1936 | Prague | TCH | last 16 | last 64 | last 32 | 3 |
| TCH | World Championship | 1935 | Wembley | CLOSELY | last 16 | last 32 | no participants | 2 |
literature
- Zdenko Uzorinac : A great man died , DTS magazine , 1990/2 p. 24
Web links
- Obituary (czech)
- Sporting successes and pictures (Czech)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Some sources give a different date of birth as January 21, 1920.
- ↑ Korbel je stolním tenistou roku in sport.idnes.cz (accessed on March 27, 2017)
- ↑ DTS magazine , 1951/20 issue West-Süd p. 2
- ↑ Often - also in the ITTF database - the name is given as "Hamr". In Czech sources, however, the spelling “Hamer” can be found: film database , ping-pong
- ↑ ITTF statistics ( memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on September 16, 2011)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Váňa, Bohumil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech table tennis player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 17, 1920 or January 21, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prague |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 4th 1989 |
| Place of death | Prague |