Swede Truls MOREGARDH is the leading name at the seedings in the Men’s Singles Event at the forthcoming European Championships in Munich. Only 20-years old Truls is the leading European name at the ITTF rankings at the position no. 5 in the World. MOREGHARD was on duty in Budapest at the WTT Champions European Summer Series 2022. He played in Round of 32 and lost to Portugal’s Marcos FREITAS. Week earlier he played in the final of the WTT Star Contender European Summer Series 2022 against WANG Chuqin. Wang coming out on top across five breathtaking games. “I think I had a good performance in Hungary. To be in the final in such a big tournament as the one in Budapest is not easy and I’m very proud for that. All the best players in the world were there. My shape feels good “ said Truls. Is there any event more on your schedule before Munich 2022. “No I will prepare with a lot of hard training and have put up a good plan for myself so I can be in top shape at Europeans. We will have a big camp here in Sweden with a few different national teams from Europe.” How you feel by being no. 1 seed in Munich?  “It still feels strange. Everything has happened really fast for me in the ranking after World Championship and it’s really cool to be on top of Europe in the ranking of course. I don’t see myself as a favorite and I think that many players in Europe feel that this tournament will be very open with a lot of surprises.” The success did not softener his edges. He is seriously preparing for the challenge and new role where he is the “pray” not a hunter. “I’m already pushing hard and I’m trying to improve my game and myself every day. But of course I want to maintain my place in the ranking. I think FRANZISKA is feeling quite good after the tournament in Budapest and he has a lot of confidence so he will be tough for many to play; 100%. OVTCHAROV in top shape looks scary to play also. But I hope the new generation with me and the LEBRUN brothers can be a threat to many.” MOREGARDH dazzled spectators at the 2021 World Championships Finals with a series of sensational performances in Houston. He beat Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan Germany’s Patrick FRANZISKA Republic of Korea’s LIM Jonghoon Nigeria’s Quadri ARUNA and another German star in Timo BOLL. Only China’s FAN Zhendong was able to stop MOREGARDH in his tracks but that didn’t stop the teenager at the time from writing his name down in history as only the second Swede to reach the Men’s Singles final this century. “A lot of things have change after Huston that’s for sure! It was a crazy tournament and a crazy experience that I will always look back to as a beautiful fairytale. It was definitely showing that everything is possible not only for Europeans but for everyone “ stated Truls MOREGARDH.

Gold medalists in teams event at the recent Mediterranean Games Darko JORGIC of Slovenia is coming to European Championships in Munich (August 13th to 21st) as a big favorite and no. 2 seed. So far Darko was in team Slovenia at the European Championships in 2017 when they won bronze in the Team’s Event but he still hungry of medals in singles. Tokyo 2020 Olympics quarterfinalist had a good run in at the recent tournaments. “I do not play in singles in Oran but I am happy that we won gold in Teams. After Mediterranean Games I took few days off to recharge and I went to Hungary to play two tournaments. I am very happy with my performance there ” said JORGIC. More recently JORGIC lost to Patrick FRANZISKA in the quarterfinal of the WTT Champions European Summer Series 2022 in Budapest. “It was very close. In the opening game I had advantage 10:5 and 11:10. In third game 10:7…and yet I lost 0:3. However it is always tough when you play against someone you know so well. We are teammates and I guess I was unhappy with the draw ” explained JORGIC. However Darko has a good reason to be satisfied with important wins over adversaries who will be also favorites in forthcoming European Championships. JORGIC beat Andrej GACINA of Croatia no. 10 seed in Munich as well Timo BOLL of Germany no. 5 seed one tournament earlier. We all remember at 2020 Europe Top-16 Cup when Darko narrowly missed out on gold to the legendary BOLL in the final. “Those victories are very good for my self-confidence ” commented Darko. Top seed in Munich 2022 Swede Truls Truls MOREGARDH on the other side justified his status by beating JORGIC in first tournament in Budapest. However earlier this year it was JORGIC who celebrate against Truls MOREGARDH in the final of the Europe Cup in Montreux. “It is irrelevant to comment his shape. It is Truls’ style that makes the damage. His way of play is very dangerous and it is incredibly hard for everyone to find the right answer to his strokes.” Beside Truls MOREGARDH who are top favorites for the gold in Munich? “My goal for sure is to reach the medal rostrum and it will not be easy with Truls at the top of the list and with very good German squad. BOLL Patrick OVTCHAROV are always there looking for gold. We cannot underestimate Portugal’s players. All of them are dangerous and capable for big results. It is going to be very interesting event ” promised JORGIC. Will you play at some tournaments before Championships. “No. I took few days off and I just started preparations with the team Slovenia in Saarbrucken. Players from team Poland Czech Republic and Italy will join us so will be really good group for training.” In the doubles. JORGIC decided to teamed up with his partner from the junior’s days Tomas POLANSKY of Czech Republic. “For already four season we are playing doubles in the club so we rejuvenated our partnership on national level. When we were juniors we won few titles together ” stated Darko JORGIC.

At least 40 EBU Members will offer in-depth TV radio and digital coverage of the European Championships Munich 2022 the second edition of the multi-sport event taking place in the Bavarian city on 11 to 21 August. The European Championships takes place every four years in partnership with Europe’s free-to-air broadcasters. This year’s edition will aggregate the existing continental championships of nine sports: Athletics; Cycling (road track mountain bike and BMX freestyle); Gymnastics (artistic); Rowing; Triathlon; Beach Volleyball; Sport Climbing; Canoe Sprint; and Table Tennis. EBU Members that will broadcast the European Championships Munich 2022 include: ORF (Austria); RTBF & VRT (Belgium); BNT/BNR (Bulgaria); HRT (Croatia); CYBC (Cyprus); CT/CR (Czech Republic); DR (Denmark); ERR (Estonia); YLE (Finland); France Televisions/SRF/RFI (France); ARD & ZDF (Germany); ERT (Greece); MTVA (Hungary); RUV (Iceland); RTE ( Ireland); RAI (Italy); LT/LR (Latvia); LRT (Lithuania); NOS (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); TVP/PR (Poland); RTP (Portugal); RTR (Russia); RTS (Serbia); RTVS (Slovakia); RTVSLO (Slovenia); RTVE (Spain); SVT/SR (Sweden); SRG-SSR (Switzerland); TRT (Turkey); BBC (UK). More than 3 500 hours of live delayed and digital programming has so far been scheduled across more than 50 channels. This compares with just over 3 000 hours of intentions for the inaugural European Championships Glasgow/Berlin 2018 edition. For example: ARD & ZDF GermanyGermany’s EBU Members will broadcast 111 hours of European Championships Munich 2022 action live on TV together with nearly 300 hours of digital live streaming on sportschau.de and Sport live | sportstudio – ZDFmediathek. Meanwhile ARD will offer an average of 11 hours a day of radio coverage via various ARD radio stations. Both broadcasters will send a full team of commentators and experts on all sports to cover the action in Munich. BBC United KingdomThere will be comprehensive coverage of the European Championships across BBC TV radio and online from Friday 12 August. Jeanette Kwakye Clare Balding and Gabby Logan will present the daily live coverage across BBC One BBC Two and the Red Button and there will be extensive streaming across BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website for fans to enjoy. BBC Radio 5 Live will cover the Athletics finals in Munich with Kath Merry and Allison Curbishley on commentary duties. SVT SwedenIn Sweden SVT will broadcast approximately 100 hours of European Championships action on its main TV channels SVT1 and SV2 hosted by main presenter André Pops. This includes at least 10 hours a day from 15 August when the athletics schedule begins and there will also be around 100 hours of additional coverage exclusive to the broadcaster’s digital platform SVT Play (svtplay.se/em-veckan). EBU Members’ coverage is supplemented by The Sports Channel (Israel) Prima Sport (Romania) and Eurosport (pan-Europe) through media rights agreements on behalf of rights-owner European Championship Management (ECM) by Eurovision Sport. ECM has also secured a number of media rights agreements for free-to-air coverage including with CBC Sport (Azerbaijan). Eurovision Services an EBU company is providing services for the distribution of the international signal for the event making it available across Europe Asia and the Americas on six separate multilateral feeds. The company is also providing dedicated services to seven EBU members. Marc Joerg of ECM said: “It is very exciting to see that Europe’s biggest free-to-air broadcasters will once again be giving the ‘major event’ treatment to the second edition of the multi-sport European Championships in Munich. “The Broadcasters appear to have embraced our revamped sports programme featuring nine Olympic sports judging by their commitments to broadcast live delayed and digital programming from morning till evening – once again helping to create a must-watch must-attend event that elevates the Champions of Europe and gives the opportunity for hundreds of millions of fans to enjoy the best of European sport.” Glen Killane Executive Director of Eurovision Sport said: “The second edition of the European Championships is the pinnacle of what has been an incredible summer of Sport. Munich hosts these championships 50 years after it hosted the Olympics and this event will be the biggest multi-sport event staged in Germany since then. “EBU Members across over 40 countries will bring the action to audiences in a way that no other organization can and ensure maximum exposure for the best athletes in Europe across 9 sports.” The second edition of the European Championships follows the outstanding success of the inaugural edition which took place in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018. Now Munich will come alive during 11 days of high-level competition centred on the city’s Olympic Park and featuring 50 participating nations 177 medal events and 4 700 athletes all captured by EBU Members’ cameras and microphones. Munich 2022 will be the biggest sports event in Germany since the 1972 Summer Olympics and will re-use many of the venues from those Games including the iconic Olympic Stadium Olympic Hall and Munich Olympic Regatta Centre. The elite competition will be accompanied by a cultural festival entitled ‘The Roofs’ and a programme of mass participation events ensuring that everyone will feel part of the European Championships.  

Placed at the position no. 13 at the seedings at the European Championships in Munich Marcos FREITAS is Portugal’s higher ranked player in Men’s Singles Event. Two times gold medal winner in doubles in Gdansk Sopot 2011 and in Team’s Event in front of home crowd in Lisbon 2014 Marcos also reached the final in the Singles in Ekaterinburg 2015. In Rusia in 2008 Saint Petersburg he won bronze in Doubles and again in Gdansk Sopot he was third in Team’s events. He was third in Singles in Warsaw as well. Few weeks before the start of the European Championships he built up his shape at the tournaments. “I am very happy with my performance in recent events. I played at the summer series in Budapest and WTT Contender in Tunisia. Overall I had three very strong tournaments and I played a lot of good matches. It came back after my shoulder injury which made a lot of difficulties for me. Now I feel better I can play without pain. I am fully recovered and very motivated to practice to return in my usual shape ” said Marcos. Last phase of the preparation FREITAS will do in Portugal with the national team. “It will not be a big group since it is holiday time but most important is that it will be very high quality team. We have very good conditions here and I believe that this week we will have a good training. It is more than enough time to prepare for the Europeans since it was very long season ” stated Marcos. FREITAS underlined how much European Championships is important competition for him. “Twice I have been at the medal rostrum in Singles by being second and third and I have not reached my dream yet. My goal is to be the European champion. Now I think I am in good shape. Not perfect though but I think it will improve as I go further into the tournament. Everybody will be in Munich there is no big names missing. In adition we did not have the draw yet so it is difficult to say how far I can go. Right now I am focused on myself and my preparations; I am not thinking of others.” First goal for Marcos is to reach the quarterfinal and then to fight for the place at the medal rostrum. “I will be very satisfied if that happens but it will be difficult. Europe is very strong now; we have a few very good young players and still very strong experienced ones. I cannot say who is the favorite and that is why I think it will be very interesting to play at the European Championships and I am sure there will be good matches to watch. There are many good players from Germany Sweden France Croatia Slovenia…”stated Marcos FREITAS at the end.  

The top seeded player in the Women’s Singles Event at the European Championships in Munich is Germany’s HAN Ying best defender in the World and number 8 in the ITTF rankings. Last year Petrissa SOLJA and SHAN Xiaona played in the final but due the injury SOLJA will not be able to defend her crown. Now all the focus will be on the leading name at the list. “Secretly of course I hope to win a medal. But since I expressed this last time and then it didn’t work out I am trying it the other way round this time. All I can say is: I am just looking from round to round from match to match at the European Championships. The competition is very strong and I count my team mates among them ” said HAN. Speaking of her current shape Han said” “After some very good performances in the spring I didn’t play the way I wanted at the WTT tournaments in Hungary in July. But I feel in training that the form curve is going up again and I hope to be in top form again in Munich.” Germany will be also represent by Europe Cup winner Nina MITTELHAM who is number 12 in the World rankings. Nina is defending champion in the mixed doubles with Dang QIU and last year’s runner-up in the doubles with Sabine WINTER. ” I really hope to play well and be successful in both doubles competitions this time as well. It’s quite possible to repeat or even improve on the good result of 2021 “said Nina. “In singles my first target is to get through the first round. After that I hope I can improve from round to round and match to match in the tournament. During my preparation for the European Championships I was actually on a very good path until my victory at the WTT Contender in Lima in mid-June. Then right after my return a Corona infection threw me completely out of rhythm for a good week. I’ve only been back in full training since the tournaments in Hungary in mid-July. But there are still ten days until the European Championships to get into very good shape.” SHAN Xiaona European silver medalist from Warsaw and World number 17 spoke on her target in the singles: “Twice I have already won silver in the singles. If I make it to the final again this year at our home European Championships I hope that this time the medal will be a different color. But there are many good players at the European Championships. The most dangerous adversary for me come from our own national team where of course everyone knows my system very well. It is really a pity that Peti had to cancel the European Championships because of an injury. I would have loved to play for the title again with her here in Germany. I wish her a speedy recovery.” Sabine WINTER world number 45 and European Championships silver medalist with Nina Mittelham in 2021 spoke on her commitment as a creative ambassador for the European Multisport Championships: “The organising committee had heard about my table tennis videos and asked me if I would like to participate. They liked my idea of playing table tennis on ice skates so the video with the ice hockey pros came about. The idea to play table tennis on the Olympic roof came from the organising committee. We still had a few ideas in the quiver but that fell through due to time constraints because of my schedule.” On her ambitions in singles doubles and mixed Sabine said: “A lot depends on the draw. But I’m coming here with confidence and I know that on a good day I can win against a lot of people in Europe. I hope to go far. I last played mixed with Bene in 2017. We tried it once in practice now and it worked quite well. We have to get through the qualifiers and then we hope to upset a few favorites in the main draw. Last year I was second in the doubles with Nina. I think that’s a result we can repeat or even top.” Tamara BOROS women’s team national coach talked about the goals of the DTTB women at the European Championships: “Everyone is in good shape but not quite in top form yet. That would also be too early now when we are a week before the tournament. On Friday we had another European Championship preparation tournament and now we gain final insights for the fine-tuning in the last week in which we will work very individually. It’s a pity that Peti SOLJA can’t compete but our team is very strong. I hope that we will be represented in the tournament until the final day of the European Championships and that the title will go to a German player again.”

In the National Training Centre in Havířov on the first week of August the Czech Republic Hungary and Greece national teams were preparing for the European Championships in Munich. Beside Men team there was also the best Czech player Hana MATELOVÁ who will be seeded at the position no. 5 in Munich the Hungarians Dora MADARASZ seeded no. 21 and Leonie HARTBRICH seeded no. 40 and the Greek number one Aikatetini TOLIOU seeded no. 55. “The preparation for the European Championship is at its peak and the players are already spending most of their time at the tables. We have a physiotherapist and quality sparring partners here. Hana MATELOVÁ didn’t even go to the WTT Contender tournament in Tunis which she won last year in order to prepare as best as possible for the tournament in Munich ” said the coach of the Czech national team Petr NEDOMA.

No 8 seed at the forthcoming European Championships in Munich Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS is aiming more medals. The 2018 Europe Top 16 Cup’s winner collected seven medals from the European Championships but it just made her hungry for more. Recently Bernadette reached the Round of 16 in the Women’s Singles at the WTT Champions European Summer Series 2022 in Budapest. “I am happy that I reached the round of 16 at the WTT Champions . I played very well but I am not satisfied 100% because I know I could play better. I know to play better and right now I am practicing very much and very hard to achieve my top shape. I am practicing a lot of things what I need with some players and I know what I need to do to improve my game ” stated SZOCS. There will be no tournaments for Bernadette before Munich 2022. “My next tournament is European Championship and I am ready for the big fight. I want my dreams to come true. Of course I practices like a “crazy” for the forthcoming Championships. And I am ready mentally and physically.” Bernie will work on her preparations in Romania. “We will have training camp for 10 days before Europeans.” Bernie played a crucial role in Romania’s gold medal finishes at the European Team Championships twice. In addition among those seven medals from the EC are three silvers in Team’s and two bronze in mixed doubles. In Munich only individual events are on the program but nevertheless SZOCS is aiming high. “ My goals for this European Championships is to win all three medals . And of course to try to win the gold ones!” It will not be easy since among top 10 players are HAN Ying and Nina MITTELHAM of Germany Austria’s Sofia POLCANOVA SHAN Xiaona of Germany YUAN Jia Nan of France YU Fu of Portugal ranked above SZOCS and Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania and Margaryta PESOTSKA of Ukraine placed at the positions no. 9 and 10 at the seedings. “ All the players whose are seeded are very strong and of course also the other players who are participating. I have to focus on all the matches and prepare very well for each match mentally and physically. To be a champion you need to beat everyone regardless their position at the seedings. Everyone is in a good shape everyone practiced very hard for this European Championships …. I am sure everyone are ready for the big fight and everyone want to win the title.” What is your best moment from the Championships? “Without any doubt the moment when we won team’s gold but I enjoyed the bronze medal moments with Ovidiu IONESCU ” concluded SZOCS.