Currently listed at no.62 on the men’s world rankings, Bojan Tokic is the most experienced member of the Slovenian team in Gondomar but the leading name is 21 year old Darko Jorgic, he stands at no.40 on the current global order.

Deni Kozul, 22 years old and Peter Hribar, 20 years of age complete the selection; the goal is to repeat the form of 2017 at the European Championships when Bojan Tokic, Darko Jorgic and Deni Kozul combined to secure an unprecedented men’s team bronze medal.

Epic contests

Memorably, it was the wins recorded by Bojan Tokic against both Anton Källberg and Mattias Falck plus, in the vital fifth match of the fixture by Darko Jorgic in opposition to Pär Gerell, that secured a stunning 3-2 quarter-final victory.

The contest lives long in the memory as does his epic fourth round men’s singles encounter at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games against Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov. He won a mammoth opening game of 64 points in total, before losing the next four (31-33, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7).

Relishing challenge

A tough task awaits in Gondomar but Bojan Tokic, as always, is confident; full of endeavour. He considers the challenge ahead.

“Of course we have chance to qualify and if not we would not even participate in the tournament in Portugal. Our number one player Darko Jorgic has been playing fantastic table tennis in recent times and we are all in good shape. I think we are ranked 10; we also need to be a little lucky in the draw.

We do not have much time to prepare together because our club schedule is tight, we play league matches every weekend. Just need to take care of ourselves to ensure we are in good shape and we are healthy to compete well in Portugal.

To be part of Olympic Games is the highest an athlete can achieve in life and you cannot describe the feeling when representing your country in such prestigious tournament. Table tennis have given me everything. I always think how would my life look without table tennis? There is of course no answer.”