Andrzej Grubba

Andrzej Grubba ( born May 14, 1958 in BrzeĹşno Wielkie; † July 21, 2005 in Sopot ) was a Polish table tennis player.

Poland

Andrzej Grubba was born in a village near Danzig, and was the son of a family of teachers. In 1972 he started with the table tennis and studied after high school in 1977 in Gdansk sport. Until 1985, he played for the table tennis team sports high school Danzig ( Gdansk AZS ), with whom he won the 1985 European Champion Clubs' Cup. Twelve times he was Polish champion in singles, first established in 1979. 1985, he joined the German Bundesliga.

Germany

He played in the Bundesliga for the TTC BTA 1985 to 1987 and from 1990 to 2002, from 1997 he worked here as a player-coach. Four times he won the German Cup as a player with BTA. In 1987 he returned to Poland and finished his studies in Gdansk, to then come back to BTA. However, he played in this section and in Austria (1988 - 1990), where he was with UTTC - Stockerau champion.

International success

From 1977 to 1997 Grubba participated in 11 World Championships and 7 European Championships.

At the World Championships he won three bronze medals: in 1985 with the Polish team in 1987 in a double with Leszek Kucharski and 1989 in singles.

At the European Championships, he came up with seven medals: In 1982 he was European champion in mixed doubles with Bettine Vriesekoop, the final he reached in 1984 ( he lost to Ulf Bengtsson ) and 1990 single, 1996 double with Lucjan Blaszczyk and 1988 Mixed with Bettine Vriesekoop.

In total he participated in three Olympic Games. At the Games in Seoul in 1988, he retired from in the second round as well as in Barcelona in 1992. In Atlanta in 1996, at the end of his career, he did not survive the qualifying round.

His biggest success in 1985 was the victory in the European ranking tournament of the Top 12 and in the same year of winning the World Cup. Famous was the changing of the batting during the rally, which was to be admired in the world top only Grubba. From 1997, he joined with Jacques Secretin on in table tennis shows.

Grubba was elected in 1985 in Poland as the first table tennis player Sportsman of the Year.

End of career

He ended his active career in 1998 and was until recently served as sports director at the Polish Table Tennis Federation.

"Players like Waldner and Appelgren have made history, but I was only in second or third. It will make me forget relatively quickly. "

Andrzej Grubba died of a lung ailment, leaving behind his wife Lucyna (nee Galus ) ( a former 75-times Polish handball national team ) and two sons ( Tomek (* 1984) and Maciek ). His son Tomek plays for FSV Mainz 05 in the Regional (2008 ).

The end of 2005 the Polish National Training Centre in Gdansk was renamed Andrzej Grubba Training Centre of the Polish Table Tennis Association.

Interesting results

1st place German Open 1984 and 1988

1st place Swedish Open in 1985 and 1993

1st place at the World Allstars Circuit 1990 Tokyo and Nishinomiya, 1991 Nishinomiya, 1993 Hong Kong, 1995 Ipoh / Malaysia

1st French Open 1990

1st place individual tournament at the Asia-Europe comparison in 1986 in Paris

Pondus Cup in Copenhagen: 1st place in 1984 and 1985, 2nd place in 1986 and 1990

1st Place Cup Germany 1989 and 1991

2nd Place Gilbert Cup in L.A. / USA 1998

2nd place French Open 1986 Czech Open 1989 Polish Open in 1987 and 1989 and

Results from the ITTF database

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