RITTO 2008

200 of the worlds leading table tennis players from 33 countries came to Cluj Napoca, Romania to play in the 2nd Romania International Table Tennis Open RITTO.

RITTO is the largest international sporting tournament to happen within Romania and largest Para-Olympic event to take place within the Central-Eastern European Region.

The following countries participated :
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Canada, Egypt,
France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Iceland,
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, USA, Ukraine

RITTO is the largest volunteer event in Cluj this year, over 1400 tasks required volunteers. Most of the volunteers came from Cluj..s high schools and universities, who willingly gave their time to help with all aspects of making this event a success, from fundraising, interpreting, transporting officials-playerspress-VIPs, acting as ball-girls/boys, cleaning, posting results, preparing lunch bags and presenting medals. (RITTO provides fantastic exposure to a whole new level of community service) the following pages contain some of the key photos of RITTO and the events that took place over the 4 days.
RITTO was voted the best tournament this year (only Beijing to follow) the international officials were so impressed with the organization, the management and the volunteers, that they will recommend RITTO as a factor 40 tournament next year (only 4 countries worldwide have the privilege of being able to hold a factor 40 tournament) It also means we can apply to host a European or World championship. (2010 maybe)

RITTO was organized and managed by the LIttle People and the Lamont Center on a non profit basis. All sponsorship raised went to cover the cost of RITTO.

The team was greeted by the main organizers of RITTO, 2 senior ITCP officials and the main sponsors of RITTO: E-On group.

We welcomed them the tradition Romanian way with bread - telemea, onions, Slanina and a shot of Tuica (which they really liked) .

TVR, PRO TV and ANTENNA 1 Covered the arrival of the team.

RITTO Newsletter from the little people Romania 2008

THE PRIDE OF CLUJ - the volunteers!
Students from all of Cluj’s high schools helped as volunteers, last year they were voted the best by the International Para-Olympic community! This year the tournament hosted the best teams and the worlds best players, all the players - umpires and coaching staff said that the volunteers are the best they have ever encountered.

The medals
RITTO could not have happened unless we had the support of the fantastic sponsors! 70% of the sponsorship came from businesses within Cluj, and the remaining from within this region of Romania. http://www.ritto.ro/sponsors.html
RITTO received over 270 media slots (International-national-regional) TV - Radio - Newsprint and internet. This ensured the maximum amount of exposure for the sponsors, with their brand being associated with the largest International sporting and community event to take place in Romania.
RITTO was a true community event and we would like to thank all the sponsors and volunteers for making this event such a success!

Stay tuned for RITTO 2009.

Thank you, the little people Romania
www.thelittlepeople.ro

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