European Youth Championships | 11 Jul 2014
Juniors’ favorites tested but prevailed
Top seeds in the Junior Boys Teams’ Event, team of France emerged successfully at the opening match of the first day of the competition at the 57th STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Italian Riva del Garda. Can AKKUZU, Europe’s no. two at the ran
Top seeds in the Junior Boys Teams’ Event, team of France emerged successfully at the opening match of the first day of the competition at the 57th STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Italian Riva del Garda. Can AKKUZU, Europe’s no. two at the rankings, Alexandre CASSIN and Paul GAUZY beat Portugal in four matches. Diogo CHEN only managed to steal the point against AKKUZU and Jorge COSTA stretched GAUZY to full distance. Denmark proved too strong for England, but they lost against France. Portugal beat England in second round.
At the top of the Group B, Sweden justified their status. AHLANDER JOHANSSON, Anton KALLBERG and Elias RANEFUR needed three matches to overcame Slovakia. Croatia’s Filip ZELJKO, Tomislav PUCAR and Vedran BAKAC gave no hope to hosts. Despite the 3:0 victory, Hungary played very close match against Poland in Group C. Adam SZUDI and Nandor ECSEKI went the full distance against Marek BADOWSKI and Patyk ZATOWKA. For Russia it was much easier. They overcame Belgium. However, they failed to halt the progress of Hungary. Poland prevailed against Belgium in next round.
Tomas POLANSKI conquered Europe last year as a cadet. This season in Italy, he started his junior journey less victoriously but still, Czech Republic won the match against Switzerland. Elia SCHMID overcame POLANSKI, but David REITSPIES and Stanislav KUCERA secured important points. Germany also faced tough opposition. QIU Dang, Killian ORT and Dennis KLEIN beat Dutch team in five matches.
Top seeds in Junior Girls Teams’ Event at the 57th STERILGARDA European Youth Championships in Lago di Garda, team of Germany faced fierce opposition at the opening day of the competition.
Led by Nicole TROSMAN, Israel forced Germany to go full distance. Two best ranked European players Nina MITTELHAM and Chantal MANTZ both suffered by her hands. However, both beat Sonia TIPLICKI and Alena LEMMER succeeded against Neli SHOIFER. In same group Croatia beat Sweden. Germany concluded the day with the victory over Croatia, whilst in full distance match Israel beat Sweden.
Another favorite – Russia was forced to go through agonizing five matches in the opening round. Netherlands recovered from 2:0 in reverse to level the match, but after additional five games in the fifth match Maria MALANINA sealed the duel against Lyn VAND DER ELSEN with 15:13 in the final set. In the opening match Ekaterina GUSEVA beat Lyn and MALANINA overcame Angelique GERTENBACH, but it was Melanie BIERDRAGER who brought Dutch team back to life. GUSEVA lost again against Angelique; MALANINA stayed calm to win the match. Italy overcame Turkey.
French side with Pauline CHASSELIN, Laura PFEFER and Audrey ZARIF faced no difficulties against Serbia, whilst Poland justified their status against Slovakia. Serbia prevailed against Slovakia and France beat Poland latter today.
In Group D, Romania had few heavy moments and that very much thanks to Alina NIKITCHANKA. Alina beat both Mihaela LUPU and Bernadett BALINT. Andreea CLAPA was also stretched to full distance against Darya HLAZUNOVA, but at the end Romania emerged victoriously.
Czech Republic beat Hungary. Romania overcame Czech Republic, whilst Hungary beat Belarus.
