EUROPEAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS (15 – 24 JULY) IN KAZAN
The European Youth Championships (15 – 24 July) will gather 454 players in four categories at the 54th edition in Kazan, Russia to be held in the venue of the Boxing and Table Tennis Centre. There will be 32 teams in the Junior Boys Team Event, 30 in Junior Girls Team Event, 36 in Cadet Boys Teams Event and 34 in Cadet Girls Teams Event. In Junior Boys Singles there are 131 entries, in Junior Girls 114, 106 entrants for cadet boys and 103 entrants for cadet girls at the Championships.
ETTU web TV partner LAOLA1.tv will cover whole Kazan event with ‘live’ and ‘on demand’ broadcasting available for free at www.laola1.tv
Once again Russia’s TTA accepted the challenge of organizing the big European event. In cooperation with TT Federation of Tatarstan Republic they continued the line of successful events such as the recently held European Championships in St. Petersburg in 2008, the European Super Cup in Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. Not forgetting that Moscow also hosted the World Championships last year.
In 2010 in Istanbul, France and Romania “split” Europe. France won gold in both the junior and cadet teams’ Event, whilst Romania clinched top prize in the girls’ events. Not only that France won gold in Turkey, but they did it in Prague and Terni as well. Once again, now with the number one player at the latest European rankings, Quentin ROBINOT, the European champion from Prague 2009, they are hot favorites. Last year Croatia won silver, but the leading team in Group B alongside Italy and the Czech Republic, is Belgium. In Group C, Sweden are at the top with challenges coming from England, Lithuania and Denmark. Hungary is at the number one position in Group D with Poland, Serbia and Slovakia. There is also a great possibility that we will see some big surprises in Group D since last-placed Slovakia have a very strong ace for a good result in Kazan. WANG Yang already showed fantastic potential and recorded a few important wins against senior players. Some of the coaches mentioned him as a favorite for the singles title.
Romania and Germany played in the final of the Junior Girls teams event last year in Istanbul. The title holders are at the top of the Group D with Poland, Sweden and Luxembourg. The champion from the cadet girls singles category in Istanbul, Bernadette SZOCS become a junior player and she will be in the team with Irina CIOBANU, Roxanda ISTRATE and Diana DRAGNEA. She is currently ranked at position no. two in Europe. Runner-ups from Istanbul, Germany are at the top of Group A with Petrissa SOLJA who moved from position no. four to three this month.
However, the highest ranked player on duty in the Junior Girls Event is Hungary’s Dora MADARÁSZ. Hungary are in the same group with France, Belarus and Ukraine. After the preparations in the Tata Olympic Centre, Lake Balaton and Ormai Laszlo Sport Hall the team will arrive in Kazan with high aspirations. Group B consists of Russia, Serbia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
In the Junior Boys Singles event the winner from Istanbul, Patrick FRANZISKA, as well as the silver medalist, Pavel SIRUCEK of Czech Republic, will be missing from the event since they have become seniors so we will see a new face at the top of the medal rostrum this year. It will be the same in the Doubles Event which is without last year’s finalists Jonathan GROTH and Hunor SZOCS. However, in the Junior Girls Category Britt EERLAND of Netherlands will be there to try to defend her title. The winners in the Doubles Event, Sabine WINTER and Barbora BALAZOVA, have also said goodbye to the junior’s category while last year’s cadet champion, Leonardo MUTTI of Italy, has become a junior.
More about the event on www.ettu.org and www.kazan2011.net
Mrs. Milica NIKOLIC – ETTU Media Officer ([email protected])