60th STAG European Youth Championships
Reigning European champions Junior girls Team of Romania beat Croatia and France in the opening matches of the Group stage at the 60th STAG European Youth Championships in Guimaraes.
Against Croatia Adina DIACONU’s performance brought two points to Romania. She beat Karla FRANOVIC and Andrea PAVLOVIC but Andreea DRAGOMAN suffered surprising defeat against PAVLOVIC. DRAGOMAN is currently ranked at the position no. 4 whilst PAVLOVIC occupies spot no 22 at the European junior rankings.
Lucie GAUTHIER of France also managed to beat DRAGOMAN. Adina DIACONU overcame Leili MOSTAFAVI before Tania PLAIAN beat Nolwenn FORT. On her second exit to the table DIACONU beat Lucie GAUTHIER
Russia beat Belgium in the opening match. They needed only three matches. Anastasia KOLISH overcame Lisa LUNG in the opening duel and Mariia TAILAKOVA and Kristina KAZANTSEVA followed her path in the same effective style.
“As always the opening match is the hardest but I gave my best to win it. Next one against Sweden will also be hard but we have good team spirit ” said Maria TAILAKOVA.
Same trio beat Sweden by the same margin to secure the leading spot in their Group.
Last year’s silver medalist team of Serbia showed no mercy against Poland. European’s no. 7 Izabela LUPULESKU expected closer encounter.
“We were ready for Poland. They are very dangerous and having them in the opening round was a very tricky situation. I was sure it will be much harder to beat them ” said LUPULESKU who beat Anna WEGRZYN 3:1.
Sabina SURJAN overcame Katarzyna WEGRZYN whilst Tijana JOKIC beat Agata ZAKRZEWSKA.
The most dangerous adversary in their Group Germany managed to make a lead with Luisa SAGER’S victory over Sabina SURJAN but LUPULESKU was at the top of the game. She overcame Jennie WOLF and SAGER. JOKIC added one point to the final score sheet. She beat Lotta ROSE.
Azerbaijan overcame Spain and it was Marina NIGUEZ who won one match against DENG Simeng. NING Jing and CHEN Xingtai showed no mercy against their adversaries. In the same Group C Hungary was close to produce the upset. They stretched Belarus to full distance and in decisive match Nadezhda BOGDANOVA won 11:9 fifth game against Leonie HARTBRICH.
