Table tennis world championship 1956

Table tennis world championship
1955 ← World Cup 1956 → 1957
date	April 2-11, 1956
venue	Tokyo
winner
Single (♂)	Ichiro Ogimura
Single (♀)	Tomi Ōkawa
Double (♂)	Ichiro Ogimura Yoshio Tomita
Double (♀)	Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu Ella Zeller-Constantinescu
Doubles (mixed)	Erwin Klein Leah Neuberger-Thall
Team (♂)	Japan
Team (♀)	Romania

The 23rd table tennis world championship took place from April 2 to 11, 1956 in Tokyo (Japan).

Overview

Only a men's team from Germany took part, not a women's team. The high travel costs were responsible for this. Other leading European countries, such as Hungary, France, Austria, Yugoslavia and Switzerland, stayed away for cost reasons.

Japan - with later ITTF President Ichiro Ogimura at the helm - was the most successful nation with four gold medals. Matei (Matthias) Gantner , who later had great success in Germany as coach of Borussia Düsseldorf , led the Romanian men's team to a surprising third place.

Cutting off the Germans

The all-German team consisted of Conny Freundorfer (Munich), Leopold Holusek (Milbertshofen), Josef Seiz (Altenkunstadt) and Bernie Vossebein (Bochum). There were no active members from the GDR.

Bernie Vossebein was initially not considered in advance. After numerous discussions and after private sponsors took over the costs, he was nominated.

Dieter Mauritz , who was still competing in the individual competitions , acted as supervisor for the Germans .

Team competition men

Germany competed in group A. Here the team won against Sweden (5: 2), Philippines (5: 1), Australia (5: 0), Hong Kong (5: 0) and Singapore (5: 3). Against Japan (0: 5) and Romania (3: 5) she suffered defeats. So she came third in Group A and fifth in the overall standings.

Men's singles

Already in the first round, Leopold Holusek (against Fujii Motoo, Japan), Dieter Mauritz (against Keiji Kodama, Japan) and Bernie Vossebein (against Chung Chin Sing, Hong Kong) failed . Josef Seiz won against Tatsuo Tsuno from Japan and was eliminated in the second round against Chiang Yung-Ning (China). Conny Freundorfer came the furthest . After bye he threw the Philippines José Bajarias out of the running. In the third round he lost to the Japanese Seiji Yamada.

Men's doubles

Here the pair Conny Freundorfer / Brian Kennedy (England) competed and lost to the Japanese Tatsuo Tsuno / Akio Nohira. Bernie Vossebein / Krishna Nagaraj (India) also failed because of a Japanese duo, namely Toshiaki Tanaka / Keisuke Tsunoda . Leopold Holusek / Josef Seiz missed their mission against Toma Reiter / Matei Gantner because of lunch .

ITTF Congress

• Germany was awarded the contract to host the 1959 World Cup.
• After 1957 the World Cup should u. a. for cost reasons, they will only be held every two years. For the years in between, Congress recommended holding continental championships.

useful information

• The Swede Gosta Brolin was only allowed to participate because he paid the travel expenses himself (similar to the Bernie Vossebein case)

philately

On the occasion of the World Cup, Japan issued a special stamp worth 10 yen (Michel catalog no. 650) with a circulation of 5 million. The stamp was made in the form of miniature sheets of 20 each. A first day cover published on April 2, 1956 depicts the Japanese vice world champion Kiiko Watanabe .

Results

competition	rank	winner
Team men	1.	Japan ( Ichiro Ogimura , Keisuke Tsunoda , Toshiaki Tanaka , Yoshio Tomita )
	2.	CSR ( Ladislav Štípek , Ludvík Vyhnanovský , Václav Tereba , Ivan Andreadis )
	3.	Romania ( Matei Gantner , Tiberiu Harasztosi, Paul Pesch, Mircea Popescu)
	3.	China (Huai-Kuang Tsen, Chuan-Yao Wang, Chiang Yung-Ning , Jui-Hua Yang, Ping-Chuan Hu)
	5.	Germany ( Conny Freundorfer , Leopold Holusek , Josef Seiz , Bernie Vossebein )
Team women	1.	Romania ( Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu , Sari Szasz-Kolosvary , Ella Zeller-Constantinescu )
	2.	England (Jean Winn, Ann Haydon , Diane Rowe )
	3.	Japan ( Fujie Eguchi , Tomi Ōkawa , Kiiko Watanabe , Yoshiko Tanaka )
Men's singles	1.	Ichiro Ogimura - JPN
	2.	Toshiaki Tanaka - JPN
	3.	Akio Nohira - JPN
	3.	Yoshio Tomita - JPN
Ladies singles	1.	Tomi Ōkawa - JPN
	2.	Kiiko Watanabe - JPN
	3.	Fujie Eguchi - JPN
	3.	Ella Zeller-Constantinescu -ROM
Men's doubles	1.	Ichiro Ogimura / Yoshio Tomita - JPN
	2.	Ivan Andreadis / Ladislav Štípek - TCH
	3.	Ludvík Vyhnanovský / Václav Tereba - TCH
	3.	Keisuke Tsunoda / Toshiaki Tanaka - JPN
Ladies doubles	1.	Angelica Adelstein-Rozeanu / Ella Zeller-Constantinescu - ROM
	2.	Fujie Eguchi / Kiiko Watanabe - JPN
	3.	Ann Haydon / Diane Rowe - ENG
	3.	Tomi Ōkawa / Yoshiko Tanaka - JPN
Mixed	1.	Erwin Klein / Leah Neuberger-Thall - USA
	2.	Ivan Andreadis - TCH / Ann Haydon - ENG
	3.	Motoo Fujii / Yoshiko Tanaka - JPN
	3.	Toma Reieter / Ella Zeller-Constantinescu - ROM

Medal table

rank	country	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Japan	4th	3	7th	14th
2	Romania	2	0	3	5
3	United States	1	0	0	1
4th	Czechoslovakia	0	2.5	1	3.5
5	England	0	1.5	1	2.5
6th	People's Republic of China	0	0	1	1
Total		7th	7th	13	27

literature

• DTS magazine , 1956, West issue
  • Issue 7 page 1–2
  • Issue 8 page 1–4
  • Dieter Mauritz : Japan dominates more clearly than ever , review, issue 9, pages 3-4
  • Dieter Mauritz: Connection to the world class achieved , retrospective, issue 10 page 4

Web links

• Entry in ITTF database
• detailed report by Tim Boggan (accessed November 29, 2013)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DTS magazine 1982/19 page 53f