In the week that the Olympic table tennis test event will be staged in Rio, Games organisers took the sport to the people. Four of Brazil’s top players laid down a challenge to commuters at Central do Brasil, Rio’s main railway station: return two of five serves and win a pair of tickets to the Aquece Rio International Table Tennis Tournament (18-21 November). You may have heard of ping-pong diplomacy, well this was ping-pong engagement.

Odd man out Paul Drinkhall already at home in Rio for table tennis test event

As people rushed across the concourse, the sound of bats on balls drew their attention on Monday (16 November). Gustavo Tsuboi, Bruna Takahashi, Gui Lin and Caroline Kumahara sent the balls fizzing across the table and among the successful challengers was 21-year-old amateur player and tax analyst Lucas Nascimento. “I follow all of them, “ he said. “They are excellent players and I made the most of being here by stopping for a while to play a little.”

Lucas Nascimento stopped on his way to work and managed to win tickets to the test event (Photo: Rio 2016/ Paulo Mumia)

Vilson Ribeiro was taken by surprise by the event staged by Rio 2016 and the Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation (CBTM). “I had never seen a game up close, only on TV,” said the 33-year-old carpenter, who also won two tickets. “For sure, I’ll be going to the test event.”

Amid the mostly timid returns, one youngster stood out. Twelve-year-old Arlei Cavalcanti not only managed to get back a serve from Brazil’s top ranked women’s player Gui, she managed to win a point against the Chinese-born player who represented Brazil at the London 2012 Olympic Games. “I started playing last year and now I train every day for one hour,” she revealed. “I want to keep doing this and be a professional player in the future.”

Students from Juan Antônio Saramanch Olympic High School showed off their skills (Photo: Rio 2016/Paulo Mumia)

Cavalcanti studies at Juan Antônio Samaranch Olympic High School in Rio – one of a group of new special schools that mix academic studies with high-level sports training. Teacher Rodrigo Francer, who coaches about 70 kids at the school, said the event was a good chance to bring the youngsters close to top-level players. “Some of the kids really stood out and we also had an exclusive training session,” he said.

Gui, 22, who was born in Nanning in southern China, has lived and played in Brazil since she was 11 and is currently ranked 135th in the world. She said the initiative showed that there was an appetite for table tennis in Brazil. “It was cool to see that Brazilians really like our sport,” she said.

Tsuboi, Brazil’s top-ranked male player at 41st in the world, said it was important to engage the public with table tennis ahead of next year’s Olympic Games. “I had never been to this station before and was amazed at how many people were here, passing by,” said the silver medallist from this year’s Pan-American Games in Toronto. “It was really cool to have this contact with the public.”

Gustavo Tsuboi, Gui Lin and Caroline Kumahara take a selfie with the Rio 2016 mascots (Photo: Rio 2016/Paulo Mumia)

The Aquece Rio International Table Tennis Tournament, the second competition in the second wave of Rio 2016 events, will take place at Riocentro Pavilion 4 in Barra on 18-21 November.