"Unacceptable": Opponent gives up in table tennis final - and makes serious accusations
Nearly 40 degrees Celsius, danger of collapse, and a major dispute: After the women's table tennis final, the defeated Berlin club attacked the association and its opponents. The DTTB reacted.
After their elimination in the final of the German Table Tennis Championship, the women of TTC Eastside Berlin criticized the conditions in their opponents' hall, Weinheim, as well as the German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB). "It was almost 40 degrees Celsius in the hall. It was impossible to play, an outrage," Eastside manager Andreas Hain told the "Tagesspiegel."
"We have a responsibility to our players," Hain said. "We protested before the match and said we wouldn't play if the temperature continued to rise." For example, 15-year-old Josi Neumann told him "that she probably would have collapsed if the game had continued for another half hour." The opponent had played the final "in a venue that was hazardous to health."
What happened? After losing 3-6 in the first leg, Eastside gave up in the return match on Sunday after losing two doubles matches with the score at 0-2. Only a win would have secured a Golden Match. TTC Weinheim 1946 thus won the national championship title for the first time.
"A match like this should never start under these conditions," Hain criticized. The European Table Tennis Federation has a maximum temperature limit of 35 degrees Celsius, the manager said. The DTTB only has a rule that the temperature must be above 15 degrees Celsius. Hain himself served as DTTB President from November 2023 to September 2024 and then, following a structural change, as CEO until February 28, 2025.
In response to a dpa inquiry, the association stated that it is reviewing the Berlin team's appeal. "The 1. Bundesliga match management will announce a decision by the end of the week. Both parties can then appeal this decision before a sports court," it said.
Hain doesn't hold out much hope for a quick win. "The association will normally dismiss the matter and say there are no rules for this case. Therefore, the protest is not permissible," he said.
However, he says Eastside could then go to the sports court and refer to the German Olympic Sports Confederation's Safe Code. "Then the DTTB will be in serious trouble. It might even lead to a rescheduling. But that's practically impossible because the season officially ended on Monday," the manager says.
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