SHUTTLECOCK

Fehér János Vice President of SFE | 1779 total views since Sep 01, 05|

Mister Fehér János Vice President of SFE and Vice President of ISF is speaking about Shuttlecock Sport in Hungary to our correspondent. This is Mr. Fehér's first interview for the European Shuttlecock Portal.

Mr. János, you are the Secretary General of the Board of the Shuttlecock Federation of Europe. Please tell us some things about yourself.

I was born on December 3rd of 1951 and I have 2 children, Janos Jr. and Judit. I studied sports and physical education, and I live in Ujszasz, where I am the headmaster of the Sports Center. Some of the sports I am teaching are triathlon, bicycling, swimming, running, badminton, ping-pong etc, and of course Shuttlecock.

Mr. János, how did you learn about shuttlecock?

On the beginning of 1993 I read a newspaper article about a new sport that was called shuttlecock and I was excited because I thought it was a good sport for the young people, to practice as a hobby. According to the newspaper, that new sport was shown to Budapest by Peter Von Rüden, where a sport official Butor Klára was so impressed that she wished to introduce it to Hungary. Then Butor Klára founded an official organization of shuttlecock of which she was the first president.

I’ve heard you started right away practicing shuttlecock.

It’s true. Since I read the article I didn’t let time go away. I bought this strange ball with the feathers and started training the youth of Ujszasz.

When the first tournament took place?

1993, was the birthday of shuttlecock in Hungary as the 1st official tournament was organized in Budapest on May 1993. It was the first participation of Ujszasz, (…and the beginning of a great course in shuttlecock that goes until nowadays). The players took part of that first team of Ujszasz were Lakatos Zoltán, Polónyi Ágnes and Szarvák Norbert. That team won the tournament.

What were the next steps of shuttlecock in Hungary?

In 1994 Peter Von Rüden invited Hungary to the German Open, where the same Ujszasz team won the 3rd place. I forgot to say that two men players and one woman represented the teams those days. Then, in 1995 we went all together to China to participate to the International competition at Wuhan. There the Ujszasz team represented by Lakatos Zoltán, Szarvák Norbert and Lakatos Attila instead of Polónyi Ágnes managed to take the 12th place behind 10 Chinese teams and one Vietnamese. Now in Hungary, there are 15 clubs, and 300 to 400 players. Also this year 50 schools took part to the shuttlecock Olympics in Hungary. Now we watch the 10th Hungarian Open in Ujszasz.

What is your thinking about the European Federation?

Shuttlecock is a very attractive and interesting sport and I wish more new countries to join the Federation, and every country member of the European Federation should introduce this magnificent sport and the SFE to another country. I believe that as at the First Olympics the participants were only 30 countries with 300 athletes, as the first World Cup in Uruguay, began with so few teams, the same course shuttlecock is going to have. Shuttlecock has to be popularized and promoted by the media.

What do you have to say for the newcomers to that sport?

It’s a very good sport, it combines sport and recreation, but it needs work; hard work and practice. That is the only way to be good in shuttlecock.

What are your plans for the future?

My wish is shuttlecock to be spread among the young people and more clubs to be found so, 1000 players and 30 clubs I can say it will be a goal for the future.

What do you have to wish for the European teams?

Hard work. This is the only way for the European teams to compete China and Vietnam. The Vietnamese at Wuhan in 1995 were placed 11th. In only 5 years, Vietnamese beat China and at Ujszasz competition on 2000, they became No 1. The European teams are very close in technique with the Asian teams, but the Asian teams are good in reflex, reaction and they think very fast.

So, I wish for the European teams, good luck and success.