Sarah De NUTTE and Andreea DRAGOMAN will join French side
TT Saint-Quentin Team Manager Jean-Louis POLARD spoke to us after eight weeks of complete lock down in France. The club reached the semifinal in the European Champions League Women but pandemic halted their fantastic run.
“Last season was very frustrating as it could have been our best season ever. Unfortunately the French League was stopped. Yet we were lucky enough to become ‘co-winner’ of the ETTU Champions League with 3 former European champions. The best result for a French team in this competition. A historic title!” said Manager POLARD.
In the club there are the Canadian and two Russia’s player.
“Everybody was locked down for eight weeks in France and we all missed table tennis. The President and the coach kept in touch with our female team to know how their foreign players managed abroad.”
According to the national restrictions the sports hall is still closed in Saint-Quentin and players are just allowed to train outdoors with physical exercises in groups of ten.
“Fortunately our best players can keep fit abroad and practice at home with their national team or on their own. The coaches hope the situation will be better in June and that they will be allowed to have indoor sessions.”
The French League was stopped in March and it was very unfortunate for our team which was 1st in group A with seven victories including the one against 2019 French League Champion.
“Finally TT Saint-Quentin was the only unbeaten team of the season out of 12 teams. It really deserved the 2020 national title but the French TT Association just declared our female team as the winner of the first half of the season.”
For the new season in Champions League TT Saint-Quentin is seeded again N°4.
“So we hope to reach the semifinals and this time to play them. Everything could be OK for autumn if there is no second coronavirus wave. In case there is a good fortune-teller around please let us know ” joked Manager POLARD. “For next season we will have the same trio with Canadian MO Zhang Russian Polina MIKHAILOVA and French Aurore Le MANSEC plus Sarah De NUTTE from Luxemburg and Andreea DRAGOMAN from Romania along with French coach Franck Delcambre.”
