Paralympians honoured at ITTF’s Star Awards

The Stars were nominated by the ITTF Para-Division, and the ITTF Star Awards Selection Commission then chose the deserving winners.

China’s Ma Lin and Sweden’s Anna-Carin Ahlquist were presented as 2013 Para-Male and Para-Female Table Tennis Stars, respectively, last Saturday (11 January) at the inaugural ITTF Star Awards at the Raffles Hotel in Dubai.

Organised in co-operation with the Dubai Sports Council, the inaugural awards attracted the who's who of the table tennis world, and was an event of glitz and glamour.

Lin won gold in the singles Class 9 event at the 2013 Asian Championships, in addition to winning team gold and singles silver earlier in the year at the Korean Open.

Ahlquist, unbeaten since she won the London 2012 Paralympics, is world No. 1 in women’s singles Class 3. In 2013, she won singles golds at the European Championships, Copa Tango Open, Slovenia Open and German Open, and both singles and team gold at the Italian Open.

The Stars were nominated by the ITTF Para-Division, and the ITTF Star Awards Selection Commission then chose the deserving winners.

In addition to awarding the world's best players for their achievements in 2013, the Awards also raised USD $246,000 for ITTF's corporate social responsibility program, Dream Building, which will be used for para-table tennis, development and junior table tennis initiatives.