On the second day of the Greek Open in Loutraki the teams reached the finals to be played today. Poland emerges as a major contender with representation in all the finals.
In the Boys’ Under 15 category they will vie for the gold against England. In the finals of the other three categories they will face Romania. While Poland has excelled with their teams England has achieved something remarkable with their sole representative team in this European Youth tournament winning all matches with a perfect 3-0 score. They secured five wins in the group stage and another in the semi-final making it 18-0 in matches overall.
“To tell you the truth I didn’t expect to win all our games so far by 3-0. It certainly wasn’t easy because if I remember correctly we had 3-4 matches in the group that went to five sets and another one this afternoon in the semi-final doubles against Greece ” said Angello CARLO England’s national coach speaking to ETTU.
CARLO coaches two of the country’s best athletes born in 2010 Kacper PIWOWAR from Peterborough and Abraham SELLADO who trains near Nottingham.
Regarding the final CARLO didn’t hesitate to label Poland as favorites.
“The kids showed great attitude and fighting spirit. It’s never easy playing against more experienced athletes but we managed it. Currently Poland with athletes older than ours remains the favorite. It’s going to be a great match though one we should enjoy. We’re playing for first place and we should be ready to seize the opportunities to win.”
In the preliminary phase all the Greek representative teams except one completed their efforts. Greece 1 in cadets (Kostas FAKAROS Konstantinos ALEXOUDIS) made it to the semi-finals but lost 3-0 to England. They’ll compete for 3rd-4th place against Belgium 1 securing the bronze medal while three other Greek teams clinched bronze medals.
On the podium will be Greece 2 in the Under 13 athletes’ team event which ranked 4th in the group (Michalis BITCHAVAS Spyros FOUSEKIS). Greece 1 in the Girls’ Under 15 team (Vasiliki BOULA Angela NOURE) also finishing 4th in the group. Bronze medals also go to Greece 1 in the Girls’ Under 13 team (Alexandra MAVRIDI Aphrodite SARIKAKI) who also placed 4th in the group.
In the other categories final rankings were determined by group stages with favorites Poland and Romania not losing to other countries. Only in the Girls’ Under 13 category did Poland 2 maintain the advantage leaving Poland 1 out of the final. Bronze medals were also awarded to Croatia in Boys’ Under 15 Belgium in Girls’ Under 15 and Poland 1 in Girls’ Under 13.
