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Germans defeat Austrian opponents in table tennis “Match in the Mining Truck” at Bauma

A very special kind of fixture: the national teams from Germany and Austria during their match in the Liebherr mining truck
A very special kind of fixture: the national teams from Germany and Austria during their match in the Liebherr mining truck

With a score of 3:2, the men's German table tennis players pipped their rivals from Austria to the post during the “Match in the Mining Truck”. And thereby succeeded in an (unofficial) revenge after a defeat that the Germans had suffered last year during the 2015 European championship final.

The Liebherr booth had a real sporty feel to it on the second day of the Bauma 2016 trade fair: the German national table tennis team met their Austrian rivals for a “Match in the Mining Truck”. Leading their teams, European record champion Timo Boll from Germany and the 2003 world champion Werner Schlager from Austria played in the 130-cubic-metre loading dump body from a Liebherr T 264 mining truck, with the Germans just managing to win 3:2.

In the third singles match, Chen Weixing (left) played against Bastian Steger

“Table tennis in a truck – something the world has never seen. A great backdrop for our unconventional re-match against Austria. It's really hard to imagine the shear size unless you were actually there. It was so impressive that I could barely concentrate on the game,” said Timo Boll. “It was a lot of fun to play in these unusual but impressive conditions against our German friends – a European championship re-match of a very different kind,” Werner Schlager reported.

The table tennis teams from Germany and Austria competed against each other for the first time since the European championship final in 2015. Playing for Germany were Timo Boll, Bastian Steger and Jörg Roßkopf; for Austria it was Werner Schlager, Chen Weixing and Stefan Fegerl. The “Match in the Mining Truck” was presented by Norbert König, sports commentator of German public TV channel ZDF.

In the third singles match, Chen Weixing (left) played against Bastian Steger

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