In 1980, some local Gothenburg clubs discussed the idea to invite senior players to an international tournament.
ITTF was contacted and asked for permission to name the event “World Veterans Championships” but with very little hope to get a positive response.
The Secretary General at that time, Tony Brooks, gave however green light but the event had to be announce as “unofficial”.
In order to find out how senior table tennis were organised in different parts of the world, Hans Westling went to Novi Sad for presenting the idea to representatives for various countries during the 1981 World Championships.
The reactions were most positive and decision was made to invite to the first World Veterans Championships (WVC) to be staged in May 1982 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Regulations (age categories, playing system e t c) were put together based upon the experiences from domestic events but also upon input received in Novi Sad.
The organisers presumed that a majority of the guests looked at the event basically as a holiday combined with table tennis and that a guarantee for a certain number
of matches was needed in order to attract players of less high quality.The concept decided (pleasant time of the year, many matches guaranteed, time for social arrangements e t c) was most appreciated and in principle still stays.
A lot of time was spent promoting the championships and much work was made to identify and attract contact persons in different countries.
21 countries were represented by 451 participants and these figures were for sure far higher than the organisers expected.
Among participants of various playing strength, many ex-champions were included and three were former World Champions: Kazuko Ito from Japan, Ferenc Sido
from Hungary and Laszlo Bellak from USA but representing Hungary during his professional career.
The event became a great success with its friendly atmosphere and the organisers were approached by a large number of participants with request for a future for
these popular championships.
Contacts was made with Swaythling Club International (SCI), a fellow organisation
of former international players and coaches.The SCI president Joe Veselsky was more than happy to let SCI stay behind future WVC and this is still the fact.
Hans Westling
Chairman
World Veterans Championship Committee
