At the afternoon of the 8th day of the competition at the STERILGARDA European Youth Championships the players who will occupies the places at the medal rostrum in Mixed doubles events are already known. Doubles from Hungary and Romania Turkey Croatia a At the afternoon of the 8th day of the competition at the STERILGARDA European Youth Championships the players who will occupies the places at the medal rostrum in Mixed doubles events are already known. Doubles from Hungary and Romania Turkey Croatia and combination of Portugal and Israel progressed to the penultimate stage of the Juniors Event. Nandor ECSEKI and Bernadett BALINT beat top seeded Kilian ORT and Nina MITTELHAM of Germany in quarterfinal. Ibrahim GUNDUZ and Damla UZEL of Turkey prevailed in the duel against Anders ERIKSSON and Erika FRONT of Sweden whilst Tomislav PUCAR and Lea RAKOVAC of Croatia beat Nikita YARUSHIN and Elizaveta KHLYZOVA of Russia. Diogo CHEN of Portugal and Nikol TROSMAN of Izrael beat Patryk ZATOWKA and Natalia BAYOR of Poland In the semi final of the Cadet Mixed Doubles Event will play Cristian PLETEA and Adina DIACONU of Romania against French pairings Nolan GIVONE and Lucie GAUTHIER. In other duel Anton KOTOV and Anastasia KOLISH of Russia will meet Rares SIPOS and Lisa Lung Romanian Belgium’s combination. PLETEA and DIACONU overcame Denis IVONIN and Maria TAYLAKOVA of Russia whilst GIVONE and GAUTHIER overcame Cristian CHIRITA of Moldavia and Sabina SURJAN of Serbia. KOTOV and KOLISH prevailed in the duel against Andrej PUTUNTICA and Daria TRIGOLOS of Moldavia and Belarus. SIPOS and LUNG beat Artur ABUSEV and Elina RUB of Russia.

In the first round of the Junior Boy’s Singles Event top seeds were out of duty at STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Riva del Garda. David REITSPIES of Czech Republic Can AKKUZU of France Tomislav PUCAR of Croatia Kilian ORT of Germany Adam In the first round of the Junior Boy’s Singles Event top seeds were out of duty at STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Riva del Garda. David REITSPIES of Czech Republic Can AKKUZU of France Tomislav PUCAR of Croatia Kilian ORT of Germany Adam SZUDI of Hungary Diogo CHEN of Portugal…all enjoyed free morning. Only three lower ranked seeds stumbled in the morning session. The best-ranked player who left the competition earlier then his rankings predicted was Alieksandr KHANIN of Belarus. Player ranked at the position no. 24 suffered by the hands of 58th Arthur BILAS of Belgium. Martin KHATCHANOV of Netherlands suffered by the hands of Adrian COSTEA of Romania; Stanislav KUCERA of Czech Republic lost against Stepan SHAPOSHNIKOV of Russia. In Junior Girls Singles Event favorites prevailed. Arina SINGEORZAN of Romania was one of the rare players who caused the upset in the early round. She overcame Karoline MISCHEK of Austria. Junior Mixed Doubles Event already reached Round of 16. Top seeds Killian ORT and Nina MITTELHAM of Germany are safely through but it was not the case with Joe SEYFRIED and Pauline CHASSELIN of France. They suffered by the hands of Vedran BAKAC and Dorina SREBRNJAK. Sadi ISMAILOV and Ekaterina GUSEVA also suffered by the lower ranked opposition. Luka JOVICIC and Suzana MENDERGES of Serbia prevailed. The combination of players from Croatia and Wales Filip ZELJKO and Charlotte CAREY lost against Lionel WEBER and Celine REUST of Switzerland whilst Andreas ERIKSSON and Erika FRONT beat Can AKKUZU and Audrey ZARIF of France.

Before France took the gold in Junior Boys Team’s Event Europe’s no. 2 Can AKKUZU lost only one individual match at the STERILGARDA European Youth Championships. Yesterday everything was set for a final but suddenly AKKUZU was nowhere around. Coach Davi Before France took the gold in Junior Boys Team’s Event Europe’s no. 2 Can AKKUZU lost only one individual match at the STERILGARDA European Youth Championships. Yesterday everything was set for a final but suddenly AKKUZU was nowhere around. Coach David JONHSTON started to look for the player and found him lying on the floor. He could not move his hand. “I guess it was too much stress for him. It happened few minutes before the match.” Alexandre CASSIN opened the duel against Poland and Can was next in line. He faced Patrick ZATOWKA. “Poland is extremely dangerous team. They reached the semi final at the World Championships. They overcame Korea to win the bronze. Safranek PIOTR is very good coach. I know him from the playing days ” explained JONHSTON. AKKUZU proved too strong for ZATOWKA and that gave space for Paul GAUZY. “Can and Alexandre were under pressure all the time. There was no space for their failure. We are not that strong at the position of the third player. However after he lost first game GAUZY’s game rose. He managed to score.” Against Sweden France was stretched to full distance. “AKKUZU was injured before the Championships so the level of his game increased match by match. It will be even better in the singles event. Since Can is seeded no. 2 and CASSAN no. 11 our hopes are very high.” Beside Poland Coach JONHSTON praised very nice performance of Denmark team. “They won bronze and they have very good players. However every team has someone very good. PUCAR ZELJKO from Croatia KALLBERG of Sweden ISMAILOV CHERNOV of Russia…” Andrea LANDRIEU is the player that was missing here. “He had a surgery. I hope he will recover completely soon and join the team.”

For a first time in history France clinched the title in the girls event. French Junior Girls beat Germany in the final of the 57th STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Riva del Garda. Generally a complete Western European final in the Junior Girl For a first time in history France clinched the title in the girls event. French Junior Girls beat Germany in the final of the 57th STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Riva del Garda. Generally a complete Western European final in the Junior Girls Team’s Event is very rare; the last Western European country to win this title was Spain in 2004 and 2005 and the last Western European final was in 1997 when Italy beat France. Germany won the title twice in 2000 and 2003. Coach Loic BELGUISE led the team with to the title. Laura PFEFER Marie MIGOT Pauline CHASSELIN Audrey ZARIF and Oceane GUISNEL had very impressie journey to the ultimate stage. “The hardest step was the semi final duel against Russia. That was the biggest challenge here. Then came the duel against Germany. The third match between Laura PFEFER and Chantal MANTZ was crucial. It was the first time that Laura beat her and they played against each other six or seven times. We knew that MANTZ was injured for a while but still Laura was under pressure. Nina MITELLHAM is way above other girls so we had to find the solution in the win against MANTZ. That is why I stared with Marie MIGOT at the front” explained coach Loic BELGUISE. Marie played  lost against Nina but overcame WAN Yuan. “It was not easy for her. She lost both encounters against Russia played against MITTELHAM in final…But she overcame all that and with great support from the team managed to record very important win against WAN.” Speaking about the team spirit coach Pascale BIBANT praised this generation. “Girls are great. They all want to play for sure but when we make the draw they does not complain if they have to sit on the bnch. They cheer with whole heart their teammates.” Semi final against Russia went to full distance. “We though Maria MALANINA will play but then suddenly they were without her with completely mixed up draw ” stated BELGUISE. BIBANT added;”It was hard emotionaly difficult match open until the last point. PFEFER was 2:0 up then CHERNYAVSKAYA leveled it was 7:7 in the decive game of the fifth match…Very hard.” Beside MIGOT who spent a year in Japan all the girls are gathered in INSEP. “We do not have big group so juniors work with senior team. We also invited German team for preparation and we went to Dusseldorf. It works great for all of us. We have quality cadets and I think our female table tennis will improve even more.”

Romania won 10th title in Cadet Girls Team’s Event. In the final they overcame Russia to defend their title. In the close match Adreea DRAGOMAN and Adina DIACONU were under pressure but Anastasia KOLISH and Maria TAYLAKOVA failed to beat them. “Adina was Romania won 10th title in Cadet Girls Team’s Event. In the final they overcame Russia to defend their title. In the close match Adreea DRAGOMAN and Adina DIACONU were under pressure but Anastasia KOLISH and Maria TAYLAKOVA failed to beat them. “Adina was under great pressure. She is the leading player at the European rankings so our decision was to let her play with the older girls. She played for a first time against very good Russia’s players and in past year she was at only one tournament in cadet category. In Poland she suffered the defeat in the semi final. She needed time to adjust to the competition. However she improves her game match after match. Also other girls are under less stress. For Adina this is final year in cadets ” explained coach Filipas MARIAN. Adina lost her duel against Maria TAYLOVSKA but overcame Anastasia KOLISH on her third visit to the table. “She was focused” explained MARIAN. ”All the girls in the team are very dedicated and it is easy to work with them. They listen and they re willing to learn.” In semi final Romania beat Germany in straight matches. “We were never challenged in that match. Only against Ukraine we were stretched to full distance.” As it was the case in Team’s Event in the singles the pressure will be on Romania’s players. “When you are good everyone wants to beat you. Adversaries play without pressure because they have nothing to lose. We’re use to it.” All the girls from national team works and lives 270 days in year in three Olympic training camps in Bistrita Constanta and Slatina. “We have good facilities so they go to school there they have trainings…Due the financial situation we are not able to travel like before but now the condition we offers are very good so we have good teams from Denmark Norway Spain…working with our players. In the sports center they can sleep eat we have big hall with 24 tables. Everything what players need to improve their game.”  

France won the title in Cadet Boys Team’s Event for a 7th time. The long list of success started in 1997 and after that French boys were at the top spot of the medal rostrum in 2004 2008 2009 2010 and 2012. In Italian Riva del Garda they returned to&# France won the title in Cadet Boys Team’s Event for a 7th time. The long list of success started in 1997 and after that French boys were at the top spot of the medal rostrum in 2004 2008 2009 2010 and 2012. In Italian Riva del Garda they returned to the top. In the final Nolan GIVONE and Irvin BERTRAND overcame very dangerous team of Romania with European no. one and two Cristian PLETEA and Rares SIPOS. “It is not only their quality that makes them dangerous; Romania is famous of fighting spirit. It is never easy to beat them. Bad thing for us was our recent defeat at the Hungarian open where we suffered in full five matches encounter. I advised players to stay calm to be focused because the pressure will be great ” explained coach of the cadet team Thierry PRIOU. Nolan GIVONE opened the final match against PLETEA. He did exactly what coach said – stayed calm. PLETEA won two opening games before GIVONE recovered to win the match. In the decisive match GIVONE beat SIPOS in straight games. “He played at the high level and showed very mature approach ” said PRIOU. “In November GIVONE also beat PLETEA and lost against SIPOS so for the final in Italy I changed the draw.” France beat Germany in semis but one of the most challenging moments was the quarterfinal duel against Sweden. “Simon SODERLUND played at the very high level. He will be also hard player to beat in the singles. BERTRAND could not beat him after five games.” In Group stages France beat Denmark Portugal and England without being seriously threatened. Occupying ranking positions no. 3 and 5 French boys are among main contenders for the title. Are they tired after Team’s Event? “That is completely new tournament now. We will forget what happened in team’s event. I am sure they are not tired. Boys are working 30 hours per week in cadets and mini cadets center Pole France in Nantes and they are ready for this.” Thierry PRIOU explained that the success came as a product of long-term strategy that was set 10 years ago. “It started with Michel GADAL. He is not involved any more but the system still works. However this is only one step. Our aim is to create good high ranked seniors. The medals at the Youth Championships only shows us are we are on a good way but we have to justify it in senior category ” added Thierry PRIOU.