Nándor Ecseki and Dóra Madarász have secured a mixed doubles quota for the Paris Olympics.
It was already known that the Hungarian duo was in a qualifying position, but the right to compete became official on Tuesday, at the closing of the Olympic ranking—this is when the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) published the list of quota doubles. In mixed doubles, 16 units can participate in this year’s games. The host, France, automatically qualifies, while five units qualified from continental qualification tournaments, and four units from the April qualifiers in Montreux. Six duos were placed in the Paris field from Tuesday’s world rankings.
The Hungarians secured the last qualifying spot behind the Chinese, South Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Romanian units.
Playing in Budaörs, Madarász is preparing for her second Olympics after Tokyo, while Ecseki, who competes in Wels, Austria, and plays for Cegléd in Hungary, will be participating in his first Olympic Games.
‘Although we knew that we had secured the quota based on points, it became final with the official statement from the International Table Tennis Federation that we can travel to Paris, which fills us with indescribable feelings. We are proud to represent our country at the Olympic Games,’ Madarász was quoted as saying by the federation’s website.
‘It has been an exciting past six months, as with Dóra and the entire staff, we have been working to secure qualification through the rankings, but even now, after the official announcement, it is an incredible and wonderful feeling that I can participate in my first Olympics. This is the dream of every national team player and the peak of my career,’ Nándor Ecseki expressed.
Ecseki also mentioned on M1 that even with this achievement, he does not want to settle for just securing the right to participate.
‘We don’t want to stop here; now that we have qualified, we want to achieve the best result possible,’
remarked the Hungarian athlete.
The 27-year-old player referred to winning the silver medal at last year’s European Games as one of the most important steps on the path to qualification. With this, they moved up in the rankings, making qualification realistic. He believes that the points earned by winning the Feeder-classified tournament in Manchester this year were crucial in the final calculations.
Until the Olympics the Hungarian duo has three more competitions scheduled. They are fighting to secure eighth place in the rankings, as it would mean facing easier opponents in the first round of the games. Ecseki explained that they will compete internationally in Croatia and Slovenia in early June, followed by another tournament in Bangkok in early July. However, he added that they might not need to travel to the latter if they perform exceptionally well in the two European tournaments.
This is Hungary’s first Olympic qualification in table tennis, and there is also a chance for participation in singles—from next week’s qualifying tournament in Sarajevo and world rankings.
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