Young (under 23 years old) European para athletes gathered at the turn of June-July for the sixth European Para Youth Games in history at Pajulahti Sports Institute. The competition center near Lahti is located about 120 km from Helsinki.
Table tennis was one of the eight sports of the multi competition. About 70 table tennis players from 19 countries made up a significant part of the competition’s total of about 450 athletes. The competition consisted of singles and a team competition in which it was also possible to participate in mixed teams. Perhaps the happiest thing was that almost twenty new para table tennis players were classified before the competition. So European table tennis is getting new young para players!
The singles of the tournament started on Friday and ended on Saturday morning. It was followed with team competition from Saturday afternoon ending on Sunday afternoon. The players and the competition organization worked round 12-hour work days but the battles played on six competition tables stayed pretty well on schedule.
The Finns especially rejoiced at the performances of only 17-year-old Aaro Mäkelä. The young Finn took bronze in the M6 category and led the pair to the semi-finals with Icelander Bjorgving Olafsson (M7) in the team competition as well. Almost the entire Finnish table tennis crowd followed Aaron’s fight via stream.
Pajulahti proved once again that it is a great place for organizing big events. Pajulahti is the Olympic training center for para sports in Finland so accessibility is also at an excellent level. Pajulahti will also host the autumn ITTF Fa20 Finland Para Open 2022 competition on 9-11. September.
Results of EPYG 2022
Singles
W1 -31) Carlotta Ragazzini ITA
2) Flora Vautier FRA
3) Maëva Olivier FRA
W6 -101) Ioana Tepelea ROM
2) Elena Elli ITA
3) Barbara Jablonka POL & Nora Korneliussen NOR
M1 – 51) Sebastian Vegsund NOR
2) Hugo Nou FRA
3) Nino Basa CRO & Iker Gonzalez Cabrerizo ESP
M 61) Piotr Manturz POL
2) Krizander Magnussen NOR
3) Aaro Mäkelä FIN & Marco Bove ITA
M 71) Maksym Chudzicki POL
2) Sam Gustafsson SWE
3) Roberto Martinelli ITA & Bjorkvin Ingi Olafsson ISL
M 81) Borna Zohil CRO
2) Pablo Jacobsen NOR 3) Ryan Henry GBR & Axel Jensen Wallin SWE
M 91) Marcin Zielinski POL
2) Joseph Crouse GBR 3) Mirko Bruschi ITA & Dominik Bartosik POL
M 101) Erik Linander SWE
2) Lorenzo Cordua ITA 3) Lorenzo Magarelli ITA & Mataro Cardenal ESP
Teams
W1- 501) Flora Vautier/Maeva Olivier FRA
2) Carlotta Ragazzini ITA/Evanthia Bournia GRE
W6- 101) Ioana Tepelea ROM/Elena Elli ITA
2) Magdalena Pawlacek/Barbara Jablonka POL
3) Grace Williams GBR/Freja Juhl Larsen DEN
M1- 51) Sebastian Vegsund NOR/Iker Gonzalez Cabrerizo ESP
2) Joseph Harent/Hugo Nou FRA
3) Edoardo Casati/Diego Coren ITA
M 141) Maksym Chudzicki/Piotr Manturz POL
2) Pablo Jacobsen/Krizander Magnussen NOR
3) Aaro Mäkelä FIN/Bjorkvin Ingi Olafsson ISL & Styrbjörn Ekengren/Sam Gustafsson SWE
M 161 Borna Zohil CRO/Alejandro Diaz Tirado ESP
2) Ryan Henry/Theo Bishop GBR
3) Johannes Rise DEN/Hamza Taleb BEL & Alen Becirevic SVN/Stefano Butti ITA
M 201) Lorenzo Magarelli/Lorenzo Cordua ITA
2) Marlon Lopez Perez/Edgar Mataro Cardenal ESP
3) Erik Linander/Axel Jensen Wallin SWE & Hugo Mauffre/Julien Cigolotti FRA
