Competition intensifies in the championship climax.
In an unprecedented turn of events, the table tennis club TTC Berlin Eastside forfeited the German Table Tennis Championship final against TTC 1946 Weinheim, due to extreme high temperatures in the Weinheim hall in North Baden.
The final defeat prevented Berlin from achieving a triple, having already won the cup and the Champions League. However, the health and safety of the players took priority, as the temperature inside the hall reached up to 38.8 degrees Celsius.
Andreas Hain, the manager of TTC Berlin Eastside, stated that they had lodged a protest before the game and would not continue if the temperature continued to rise. The Berliners described the playing conditions on June 29th as health-endangering. One of the players, Josi Neumann, expressed concern that she might collapse if the game continued for another half hour.
Despite the protest, the Berliner's appeal against the scoring of the aborted team final was dismissed by the sports court of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB). The DTTB competition rules do not provide a fixed upper limit for hall temperatures, and there are no explicit European or German temperature regulation standards for competitions found in the available sources.
Indoor table tennis halls, such as professional club facilities, maintain comfortable ambient temperatures during play for optimal conditions without strict numeric temperature rules publicly cited. According to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) regulations, all competition tables must meet exact specifications for size, net height, and surface, but temperature standards are not explicitly outlined in those sources.
The opponent, TTC 1946 Weinheim, played the final under health-endangering conditions, according to TTC Berlin Eastside. Despite the circumstances, the Palatinate women secured the German championship title for the first time by winning the first leg in Berlin 6:3. The original scoring of 6:0 for Weinheim remains, as the match officials of the German Table Tennis Association had already decided that the scoring of the second final match in the Bundesliga would remain.
TTC Berlin Eastside has the option to lodge an appeal with the Federal Court of the DTTB within two weeks, should they choose to do so. For exact regulations about competition venue conditions (temperature, humidity) in Germany or European tournaments, consulting the ITTF official competition handbook or the German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB) documentation directly would be the advised next step.
The sports community remains divided on the issue of hall temperature limits in table tennis competitions, as the forfeit by TTC Berlin Eastside during the German Table Tennis Championship final drew attention to the lack of specific guidelines. Despite their health concerns, the final defeat prevented Berlin from achieving a triple, having already won the cup and the Champions League.
