Harimoto: "My goal is, of course, to win the Champions League".
Tomokazu Harimoto will play for a team from the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) for the first time in the new season. The 19-year-old will compete in the Champions League (TTCLM) with TTC Neu-Ulm. The goal is clear: to win the title.
"My goal is of course to win the Champions League," says Tomokazu Harimoto in an interview with mytischtennis.de about the new season in the TTCLM. The world number four is part of a major offensive of the TTC Neu-Ulm. Besides Harimoto, three more players from the top 10 of the world rankings - Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Truls Moregard and Lin Yun-Ju - have moved to Germany. The TTC has even provided the latter three with a license for the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) and the German Table Tennis Cup; Harimoto will serve exclusively in the TTCLM.
"I was interested in the Champions League - and when I got the offer, I thought to myself, 'I want to play there!" adds Harimoto. He says the vision of TTC President Florian Ebner was a deciding factor. Of his new teammates, Harimoto says, "I'm looking forward to playing with them, as all three are top international players. How often I'll be able to meet and train with the team, I'm not sure right now due to the schedule of international tournaments and T-League games."
Next goal: gold at the Olympic Games
Harimoto also has his sights set on individual titles. The 19-year-old admits he is "still frustrated" not to have won any medals at the Tokyo Olympics. He was defeated by Darko Jorgic (1. FC Saarbrücken TT) in the round of 16 last year. "Of course, my next big goal is to win a gold medal in singles at the 2024 Olympics in Paris," Harimoto now says.
On the way there, the experience with TTC Neu-Ulm should help: "I think I made a lot of mistakes against the powerful balls of European players because the quality of the strokes of European and Asian players is different," the Japanese player believes. "Therefore, I thought that by training and competing with European players, I could get used to it and win. At that time I got the offer from Ulm, so I thought I have to go now."