2015 World Champion MA
Long, and 2015 Women's World Cup Champion LIU Shiwen are the respective
2015 ITTF Male and Female Table Tennis Stars at the 2015 ITTF Star
Awards.
The 2015 ITTF Star Awards was held on 9
December at the Patio da Gala in Lisbon, Portugal, to honor and celebrate
the table tennis stars, athletes and coaches, for their achievements in
2015. Eight prestigious awards were given out on star-studded evening in
the city's emblematic landmark.
The two most eyed awards of the year, the
Male and Female Table Tennis Stars were determined by the 60,000 public
votes from fans all around the world, combined with the judging results
from an expert panel consisting of ITTF Athletes' Commission, the ITTF
President, and various international media.
Hot favourite for the night, MA did not
disappoint the majority of the fans who voted for him on the
ITTFStarAwards.com voting page to claim the 2015 Male Table Tennis Star
Awards presented by Seamaster, after becoming the 2015 World Champion and
2015 Men's World Cup Champion.
After fending off contest from compatriot
FAN Zhendong, European Champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, and 2014 World Tour
Grand Finals Champion Jun MIZUTANI, the current world number one shared
"Thank you for the award and to everyone who has supported me, this award
is recognition of my best ever year in 2015. This award means a lot as
it's the first time I have won it and I want to win it again and again. I
will continue to work hard and success next year."
The Female Table Tennis Star Awards
presented by Nittaku saw hot contest between DING Ning (CHN), Kasumi
ISHIKAWA (CHN), LIU Shiwen (CHN), and Petrissa SOLJA (GER). It was LIU who
secured the most votes to take home the prestigious award with
her.
The four time Women's World Cup title
holder stated: "It is a great honour to receive this award; my thanks to
the ITTF and everyone who has supported me. This award is a very special
way to finish 2015 and I hope for even more success in the Olympic year
next year."
The 'Point of the Century' played by FANG
Bo and MA Long at the Qoros 2015 World Championships Men's Singles final
that generated over 2 million views on YouTube, was also named the 2015
Table Tennis Star Point presented by DHS.
The Male and Female Table Tennis Stars for
the Para Table Tennis category went to Indonesia's Class 9 player David
Jacobs and Serbia's Borislava PERIC-RANKOVIC (Class 3) respectively for
their achievements in the 2015 Continental Para Championships and Para
events around the world.
With the spectacular results posted by the
Chinese team in 2015, the Head Coach LIU Guoliang was the natural winner
for the Star Coach of the year presented by Butterfly.
New to the 2015 ITTF Star Awards, a
Breakthrough Star award presented by TMS International was given out to
Japan's 15-year-old sensation Mima ITO. ITO was not only the youngest ever
winner of an ITTF World Tour event, but also made it to the Japanese
Olympic team line up for Rio 2016 Olympic Games at a young age of
14.
In addition, a Fair Play Star award was
handed out to Linor CITAKU and Vlona MALOKU from Kosovo for their act of
fair play at the Qoros 2015 World Championships. The pair lent their spare
rackets to their opponents in the first round of the mixed doubles
competition who failed their racket testing, to ensure that the match
continued.
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