European Championships | 15 Jan 2019
BUTTERFLY become the title sponsor for the 2019 European U21 Championships
BUTTERFLY will be the title sponsor for the 2019 European U21 Championships. For a third time young players from ther Old Continent will gather in Portugal’s Gondomar from 7th to 10th March to fight for the titles in the Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles events.
"An important aspect of Butterfly's corporate philosophy is the support of the table tennis sport and its community. We have always been glad to especially support aspiring young players. As such, Butterfly is proud to support and supply the ETTU U21 European Championships 2019 in Gondomar," said Hajo NOLTEN, Butterfly Europe CFO.
The organisers is Portuguese Table Tennis Federation (FPTM) under the authority of the European Table Tennis Union.
"We are very happy that Butterfly has joined Portuguese Table Tennis Association in the organization of U21 European Table Tennis Championships giving it's prestigious name to join the title of this important youth event. Butetrfly has been very active to support young players and it a very important partner of FPTM," said President of the FPTM and member of ETTU Executive Board Pedro Miguel MOURA.
In the venue of Multiusos de Gondomar we will see again in action the winner of the Men’s Singles title in 2018 BELGOSSTRAKH European Under 21 Championships, Tomas POLANSKI of Czech Republic. Last year’s runner up Cristian PLETA of Romania, bronze medalists at the World Championships, is also on the list, currently placed at the position no. 6. At the top of the rankings is Darko JORGIC of Slovenia, last year’s semifinalist. No. two at the list is Anders LIND of Denmark, followed by another semifinalist Rares SIPOS of Romania.
Belgium’s Lisa LUNG head the Women’s European Under 21 list. No. two is reining champion Mariia TAILAKOVA of Russia, followed by her compatriot and last year’s runner up Valeria SHCHERBATYKH. The list of invited players goes on with two French players Audrey ZARIF and Marie MIGOT.
In singles events 8 seeded players will be directly placed in stage Two. The remaining 48 players will play in a qualification, in 12 groups. The winner and the runner-up from each group will qualify for stage Two. In Stage Two the 24 qualifiers from stage 1 and the 8 seeded players will be drawn into 8 groups. The winner and the runner-up from each group will qualify for stage Three. The winners of the groups 1 to 8 in Stage 1 shall be drawn on position 2 in these groups, the winners and runners-up of the groups 9 to 12 shall be drawn on position 3 and the runners-up of the groups 1 to 8 on position 4.
The Draw for singles and doubles events will take place on Wednesday 6th March 2019 at 18.00 at the venue.
Full list of the invited players you can see here
