European Championships | 12 Sep 2017

Europe’s Best Discuss The Championship In Luxembourg

A high quality field of players and coaches joined the press conference on the eve of the LIEBHERR 2017 European Championships in Luxembourg.

 

Players Dimitrij OVTCHAROV & Sabine WINTER (Germany), Stefan FEGERL (Austria), Marcos FREITAS (Portugal), Elizabeta SAMARA (Romania), Sarah di NUTTE & Eric GLOD (Luxembourg), and coaches Jie SCHÖPP (Germany), LI Qian (Austria) and Martin OSTERMANN (Luxembourg) shared their views on their team’s preparation for the event, and their chances of claiming the title.

Many of the players and coaches referred to the high level of competition in Luxembourg, and that to progress to the latter stages would require the very best performances.

 

Dimitrij OVTCHAROV was in positive mood, “we had a great training camp and are in good shape. So we are ready to fight to the title of European Championships. The biggest competitors in the fight for the title are Portugal, Austria, France and Sweden too.”

Austrian Men’s Team is the reigning European team champions. Stefan FEGERL was reflective on what that means this time round, “because of the previous team victory the team is under more pressure but we hope that we can keep the title.”

 

Marcos FREITAS of Portugal was positive of his team preparations too, “I believe that Portugal’s team could well be a force to recover the title of European Championships after 3 years because we have had a good week’s preparation training camp in Porto. The most important that we go ahead step by step and always focus on the next match.”

 

The home players in Portugal were also positive and relishing the chance to play in front of their home crowd. Sarah di NUTTE added “it is a big advantage to Luxembourg’s team with home fans, I hope that what we will have lots of support from the spectators.” And Eric GLOD added, “we have nothing to lose and will try our best.”

 

Jie SCHÖPP joked with journalists when asked about the German team’s tactics, these will be ashared after the Championships she joked. She also added that with injuries in the team, you just have to continue.

 

Martin OSTERMANN described his team philosophy as enthusiastic and that he wanted his team to give their best and enjoy the experience.

 

The press conference was concluded with a rendition of happy birthday for Stefan FEGERL, enjoy your birthday Stefan!

 

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