Table tennis world championship 1955
 Table tennis world championship
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| date | April 15-24, 1955 | |||
| venue |
 Utrecht
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| winner | ||||
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| Single (♂) |
 Toshiaki Tanaka
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| Single (♀) |
 Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu
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| Double (♂) |
 Ivan Andreadis Ladislav Štípek
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| Double (♀) |
Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu Ella Zeller-Constantinescu
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| Doubles (mixed) |
 Kálmán Szepesi Éva Kóczián
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| Team (♂) |
Japan
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| Team (♀) |
Romania
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The 22nd table tennis world championship took place from April 15 to 24, 1955 in Utrecht (Netherlands). The venue was the Bernhard Hall on the exhibition grounds.
Game mode
The 32 men's teams were drawn into four groups of eight teams each. The 22 women's teams were divided into two groups of seven and one group of eight. Everyone played against everyone in all groups. Only the first in the group made it to the finals.
Cutting off the Germans
The all-German teams consisted of the men from Conny Freundorfer (Munich), Leopold Holusek (Milbertshofen), Josef Seiz (Altenkunstadt), Günter Matthias (East Berlin) and Heinz Schneider (Mühlhausen in Thuringia) as well as the women from Hilde Kraska (Bottrop), Hannelore Schlaf (Frankfurt am Main) and Hannelore Hanft (Erfurt).
Team competition men
The German team started in Group IV. They won against Saarland, Lebanon, Wales and Switzerland each 5-0 and against Spain 5-1. There were also two defeats against Romania and England, each with 3: 5. The German team finished third in the group stage and reached 9th place overall. As a result, Germany was upgraded from performance category II to category I by the world association ITTF.
The Saarland team also played in Group IV. They only won against Lebanon 5: 4 and were second to last.
Team competition women
The German women's team prevailed in Group III against Switzerland 3: 2 and against Italy 3: 1. The remaining games were lost: England (0: 3), USA (0: 3), Wales (2: 3), Austria (1: 3) and Sweden (1: 3). In the group stage this was only enough for sixth place and overall 16th place. Because of this placement, the ITTF downgraded the German women's team to Category II.
Saarland played in Group II. Like the men, the women only reached the penultimate place. The 3-2 win over Ireland was offset by defeats against Japan, France, CSR and the Netherlands (3-0 each) and a defeat against Egypt (3-1).
Men's singles
The East German Oskar Frank failed in the qualifying round despite the victories over H. Westerink (Netherlands) and Walter Spruyt (Belgium) because of the defeat against Christian Awart (Austria). Also Lothar Pleuse did not survive the qualifying round. He defeated Peters (Netherlands) and Louis Van Gelder (Belgium), but not Wout Heemskerk (Netherlands). Then he went to the consolation round , where he was eliminated after victories over Georges Roland (Belgium), Guy Delabarre (Belgium) and Stig Nasström (Sweden) against Bo Malmquist (Sweden). Horst Jung (Bonn) lost to Curt Osterholm (Sweden) in the opening round. Hans Rockmeier prevailed against Lennart Johannsson (Sweden), but not against the Australian Arden Robinson.
Josef Seiz convinced despite his defeat against the strong Mai Van Hoa (South Vietnam). In the consolation round he won against J. Tarrago (Spain), Roger Cardos (Belgium) and Mogens Nicolajsen (Denmark) and then lost to Bo Malmquist from Sweden. Kurt Seifert advanced one round against Khadiga Abou Heif Rifaat (Egypt), where he waseliminatedby Bryan Merrett (England). Günter Matthias survived two lapsagainst André Steckler (Switzerland) and Willie Van Zoelen (Netherlands) before losing to Toma Reiter (Romania).
Leopold Holusek made it through to the fourth round, beating Moustapha Nasr (Egypt), Mikhail Karaneshev (Bulgaria) and Laszlo Varkony (Hungary). But then the future world champion Toshiaki Tanaka was too strong. Heinz Schneider , who won against Aubrey Simons (England) and Karl Wegrath (Austria) and made it through to round two without a fight, made it just as far. In the fourth round he was defeated by the Romanian Matei Gantner . The hopeful Conny Freundorfer disappointed when he lost to the French Stephen Cafiero after the victories against Fawzi El-Abrashi (Egypt).
Willi Trautmann (Saarland) lost in the first round against Stephen Cafiero (France).
Ladies singles
Renate Kohn was eliminated in the qualifying round against Elsie Carrington (England). Uschi Fiedler survived the qualification by winning over Claudine Collingnon (Belgium), Maria Janssens (Belgium) and Margo van Wijk (Netherlands). Then she lost in the first round to the Egyptian Fawika El-Shayati. Also the end of the round was for Hannelore Schlaf against Margaret Fry (England) and Annegret Thöle against Hana Vyhnanovska (CSR).
Two German players reached the second round. Hannelore Hanft prevailed against Gisele Jeannotin (France). Then she lost to Nel Groot from the Netherlands. Hilde Kraska won against Margita Covic (Yugoslavia) and lost to Fujie Eguchi (Japan).
Men's doubles
The double Freundorfer / Rockmeier came the furthest . After victories over Jean-Louis Mathieu / Maurice Genton (France), a Spanish double and Bernhard Bukiet / Erwin Klein (USA), they had reached the quarter-finals. Here they lost 3-0 against eventual world champions Ivan Andreadis / Ladislav Štípek (CSR).
Seifert / Jung came two laps further by eliminating Harry Hirschkowitz / Robert Gusikoff (USA) and a double from Vietnam. The later winners of the bronze medal Ichiro Ogimura / Yoshio Tomita (Japan) were too strong. Holusek / Seiz won against Fernando Olazzari de Castro / Alberto Kurdoglian (Brazil) and then lost to Alex Ehrlich / Raoul Bedoc (France) 2: 3. The East German double Matthias / Pleuse defeated Roger Cardos / Jean Ventat (Belgium) and then failed to Fawzi El-Abrashy / Mohammed El-Ashmawy (Egypt). Even Schneider / Frank reached the second round against K. Gustafsson / Tony Larsson (Sweden) where it against Dick Miles lost / John Somael (USA).
The Saarland doubles Willi Trautmann / Werner Weiß progressed one round against Henny Grijzenhout / Pit Weel (Netherlands) and then lost against the eventual world champions Ivan Andreadis / Ladislav Štípek (CSR).
Ladies doubles
The most successful were Schlaf / Fiedler , who came in the last 16. They threw Leah Neuberger / Pauline Robinson (USA) and Mina Ulrich / Gisele Jeannotin (Switzerland / France) out of the race and then lost to Ermelinde Wertl / Ann Haydon (Austria / England).
Kraska / Thöle (against Diane Rowe / Rosalind Rowe , England) and Hanft / Kohn (against Fujie Eguchi / Kiiko Watanabe , Japan) were eliminated directly in the first round .
Mixed
All three German couples who first had to compete in the qualifying round were able to hold their own here:
- Seiz / Thöle won in the qualifying round against Galal El-Refaaie / Fahmy (Egypt) and J. Giltenan / Mary Wilson (Ireland), then defeated Jan Scheffer / Annie Dinkelmann (Netherlands) in round one and lost in the round of the last 64 den Austrians Karl Wegrath / Friederike Lauber (Austria).
- Already in round one Holusek / Kraska were eliminated against the Austrians Karl Wegrath / Friederike Lauber .
- For Freundorfer / Schlaf the double Ichiro Ogimura / Kiiko Watanabe (Japan) was the final destination in round one .
- Schneider / Hanft won against Günter Hoffmann / Eva Graf (Saarland), but were then defeated by Toshiaki Tanaka / Shizuka Narahara (Japan)
- Pleuse / Kohn defeated André Steckler / Margo Van Wijk (Switzerland / Netherlands) and Peter Pudney / Jean Mackay (England) in the qualifying round, but were then eliminated by Vilim Harangozo / Gertrude Pritzi (Japan / Austria).
- Rockmeier / Fiedler reached the next round by beating Mohammed El-Ashmawy / Shiati (Egypt), Sturani / Bregante (Italy), where they lost to René Roothooft / Christiane Watel (France).
Willi Trautmann / Helga Naumann from Saarland lost to Helmut Jespersen / Gudrun Kahns (Denmark).
useful information
- Again (and for the last time) Saarland competed with its own team. She was looked after by Tibor Harangozo (Yugoslavia).
- Germany competed with an all-German team.
- The final in the men's singles between Toshiaki Tanaka and Žarko Dolinar lasted about 14 minutes. It was the shortest final at a table tennis world championship to date.
- In the doubles Ivan Andreadis / Ladislav Štípek against Ichiro Ogimura / Yoshio Tomita , a set only ended at 33:31.
- The highest set win was achieved by the double Ichiro Ogimura / Yoshio Tomita against Stephen Cafiero / Jean-Claude Sala (France) with 21: 1.
- With 58 minutes, the game Ermelinde Wertl against Éva Kóczián lasted the longest.
- With Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu , a player from Europe wins the gold medal in the individual for the last time (as of 2020). It is already her 6th single title.
- The two-time world champion Bohumil Váňa says goodbye to the international stage.
- Vilim Harangozo , who was to lead Germany to the silver medal as a coach in Munich in 1969, together with Žarko Dolinar took second place in the men's doubles.
- Pakistan reported the lineup of its men's team too late. Therefore this was not allowed to compete.
- The Dutch Post uses a special postmark and a special registered slip for registered letters.
ITTF Congress
- At the congress of the world association ITTF , Belgium applied for a ban on the sponge coating of table tennis bats. The motion was rejected with 37:21 votes.
- It was discussed whether the center line of the table should be omitted and, in the case of doubles, the serves can be played on any side.
- The 1956 World Cup was awarded to Tokyo.
- The DTTB President Karl-Heinz Eckardt was elected to the ITTF Material Committee, the Committee for Rules of Procedure and the Technical Commission for World Championships.
Results
The following Germans only took part in the individual competitions:
- Gentlemen: Horst Jung (Bonn), Hans Rockmeier (Munich), Kurt Seifert (Wiesbaden), Oskar Frank (Oberschöneweide, GDR), Lothar Pleuse (East Berlin), Hans Schommer (Saarland)
- Women: Uschi Fiedler (FRG), Annegret Thöle (Hamburg), Renate Kohn (East Berlin)
Medal table
| rank | country | gold | silver | bronze | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
.svg){kind=small} Romania
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3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 |
Japan
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2 | 1 | 5 | 8th |
| 3 |
 Czechoslovakia
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1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 |
.svg){kind=small} Hungary
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1 | 0 | 4th | 5 |
| 5 |
.svg){kind=small} Yugoslavia
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0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 6th |
 England
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0 | 1.5 | 2 | 3.5 |
| 7th |
 Austria
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0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8th |
 Scotland
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0 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 |
| 9 |
 France
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0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 7th | 7th | 13 | 27 | |
literature
- Reports: DTS magazine , 1955/9 + 1955/10
- Review by Jupp Schlaf , DTS magazine , 1955/11 pages 3–4 + DTS 1955/12 page 4
- Press review, DTS magazine , 1955/12 pages 13-14