Francois Herold Getting his Teeth in Tournament Management
11/17/09

8/14/2007
Forty-four year old dentist, Francis Herold from Haiti left the shores of El Salvador a wiser man having attended the Event Organization Seminar in the country’s capital city, San Salvador from Sunday 12th until Tuesday 14th August 2007.

He was one of twenty-one students from the countries of Latin America who attended the course under the direction of Raul Calin, ITTF Competition Manager.



The countries represented were Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nives, Spain and Trinidad and Tobago.

Goal
An ITTF World Junior Circuit in Haiti is the goal for Francis Herold in the next five years but the lessons learned in San Salvador can be put into immediate effect.

“Each year we organise the Haiti Open, the Haiti Masters and the Caribbean Gand Prix”, explained the dentist from Port-au-Prince. “I’ve been looking for such a course, primarily because I want to further develop our team event in Haiti.”

Professional
Undoubtedly, the course has given Francis Herold a wider and more professional vision on tournament organisation.

“I’m more aware now how to structure an event, how to put a tournament in place from start to finish, how to schedule the event”, he continued. “Basically we can now present matters in a much more professional manner and I can pass on the knowledge to my colleagues in Haiti.”

Passion
The dissemination of information is to be applauded and the man who created the Table Tennis Association in Haiti and has a deep passion for the sport sees the competition structure in his country developing further.

“Hopefully we can organise more competitions”, continued Francis Herold. “We are not yet ready for an ITTF World Junior Circuit but that is something which is certainly in my mind.”

Journalist
No doubt we will soon see the Haiti Junior Open appearing on the international calendar and such an event will no doubt receive good publicity. Francis Herold is the editor of two magazines, Haitian Table Tennis and Ping Sport.

A man of many talents and judging by his profession, he’s no doubt very good at filling the columns and extracting the truth.