European Olympic Singles Qualification | 19 Apr 2021
After Doha, Greek trio seeking for new chance in Guimaraes
Three players, who competed last month at the World Olympic Qualification Singles Tournament in Qatar, will represent the Greek table tennis in the respective Olympic Qualification Tournament in Europe. Panagiotis GIONIS, Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS and Katerina TOLIOU will be on duty in Guimaraes, Portugal to claim the tickets for Tokyo. As in Doha, the head of mission will be the national coach Κostas VATSAKLIS.
Same as month earlier, top Greek athletes at the World rankings were selected for the Qualifications. GIONIS, of course, lead the team. The main pressure of the big expectations is on his shoulders. Panagiotis has huge experience from such tournaments, he has the quality to claim the Olympic spot and he will be one of the favorites at the tournament. GIONIS ‘s goal is to be present at the 5th Olympic Games of his career.
In Doha, GIONIS came very close and lost very crucial games in stage 1 and stage 2. In Guimaraes he does not want to miss the opportunity. GIONIS is looking for a success he has already had at the Olympic Qualification tournaments in Europe. He qualified two times through Continental tournaments in 2008 in Nantes, France and in 2016 in Halmstad, Sweden.
SGOUROPOULOS will have his premiere at the Olympic Singles Qualifications Event in Europe, but he made his debut on Portuguese soil last year in a similar process to the World Olympic Team Qualification in Gondomar. In Guimaraes he already celebrated his first European title in 2017 (in the junior singles).
TOLIOU also has valuable experience from the European Pre-Olympic Tournaments in singles. She was present in 2012 in Luxembourg and in 2016 in Sweden. In Qatar, SGOUROPOULOS and TOLIOU were eliminated at the start of Stage 1. In Portugal they definitely want to move on in knock out system and to get to the point to be in the position to cause the upset.
“We have done very good preparation, the athletes feels thirsty and, of course, the Federation and the Hellenic Olympic Committee, want results”, said Κostas VATSAKLIS.
