Germany’s teams for the 41st Team European Championships in Malmö (September 10th to 17th) have been finalized. The five-member German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB) teams for men and women led by Timo BOLL and Benedikt DUDA as well as Ying HAN and Nina MITTELHAM are set to compete in Sweden with high hopes following their victories in 2021 in Cluj-Napoca Romania.
In Malmö the women’s team includes world ranking tenth Ying HAN (Tarnobrezg) European Championship runner-up Nina MITTELHAM (Berlin) European Championship semi-finalist Xiaona SHAN (Berlin) 17-year-old German Championships runner-up Annett KAUFMANN (Böblingen) and European Championship bronze medalists Sabine WINTER (Dachau). The men’s team consists of the former top-ranked player in the world Timo BOLL (Düsseldorf) who has returned to the rankings at position 65 after a long injury break Benedikt DUDA (Bergneustadt) who played key roles in the team’s successes in 2021 and 2022 and Ricardo WALTHER (Grünwettersbach). The fourth and fifth positions go to debutant Cedric MEISSNER (Saarbrücken) and Kay STUMPER (Düsseldorf) who earned their spots in the European Championships through an internal selection tournament surpassing Fanbo MENG (Fulda). Defensive strategist Ruwen FILUS ranked 24th in the world was not an option for this European Championship due to personal reasons and Kilian ORT (Bad Königshofen) is still recovering from an injury and has training deficits.
DTTB Sports Director Richard PRAUSE along with national team coaches Jörg ROSSKOPF (men) and Tamara BOROS (women) explained “The continental championships along with the already-held European Games and the Team World Championships in South Korea at the end of February are among the top three events on the road to our absolute season highlight the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Our nominations aim to get our teams in top form for Paris. For the women who haven’t played any tournaments since the European Games the European Championships are part of the competition phase so the team is competing in Malmö with its strongest lineup. For the men on the other hand we have a different approach: we want to provide a longer training period for Dang QIU Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Patrick FRANZISKA with an eye on Paris which includes the period of the European Championships given the limited available dates.”
Regarding their chances in Malmö the Sports Director said “The situation for the men is similar to the 2021 European Championships and the 2022 World Championships. We have a very strong team that can compete for medals in Malmö. We saw at the Team World Championships how a German team can perform in a tournament but the strong nations are all very closely matched. Especially host Sweden France and Portugal are formidable competitors. In the women’s event I hope that our team will compete for the title likely alongside their perennial rivals Romania.”
