Local services
The idea of the initiative is that third-grade students in the schools of the Debrecen School District Centre should learn to play table tennis in physical education classes. This year, more than 1,400 children have been introduced to the sport, and almost 10,000 children have picked up a ping-pong racket since the programme started.
Balls were bouncing around on the ping pong tables set up in the Kazinczy Ferenc Primary School. Léna Köblös was among the children who got acquainted with table tennis two years ago, when she was in the third grade, and since then she has already won first and third places in the student Olympics.
“Usually the girls used to dance, but I felt that table tennis was a very special sport and suited me, I thought. I started playing it and I really liked it,” Léna Köblös said.
A programme has been launched in Debrecen to help all third-grade students learn to play ping-pong. Mayor László Papp pointed out that there are about 73,000 students in the city, and the aim is to give as many of them as possible the opportunity to play the sport. “The Debrecen Table Tennis Club is taking an increasingly prestigious position in the Hungarian table tennis scene. And for this reason it is also very important that our school system supports the development of this sport,” the mayor emphasised.
“The Debrecen School District Centre joined the programme in the 2017/18 school year. What is special about this year’s programme is that the trainings are held in three locations, so not only in the Nagyerdei Stadium, but also here at the Kazinczy School and the Árpád Vezér Primary School,” Director of Debrecen School District Centre László Türk said.
The School District Centre also has member schools in the district of Nyíradony, and one of the novelties of the programme is that the trainers will also come to teach there. We can create a complex programme with the involvement of our experts and equipment, which is really exemplary. I think we need to develop this further,” President of the Debrecen Table Tennis Club Tamás Horovitz said.
It was also announced at the event that after this year’s Paris Olympics, the Hungarian National Table Tennis Club will set up talent centres, one of the priority locations being Debrecen.
Source: debrecen.hu
