In the Para Table Tennis tournament of Italy Bournia, Golden

Evanthia-Irini Bournia and Grigoris Chrysikos, both champions in class 1 (with a wheelchair), are moving to Lignano, Italy, where the “ITTF Fa20 Lignano Masters Para Open 2023” table tennis will take place on March 15-18. It is an established event, which took place for the first time in September 2007 with around 200 athletes and, after a forced three-year absence due to the pandemic, it reappears this year and is held for the 13th year.

It concerns classes from 1 to 11 and includes all individual events, i.e. with a total of 5 doubles. The Greek internationals are accompanied by their coach, Eleftheria Daundakis, and will look, for their part, to make their presence felt again in event, where there will be many athletes who also participated in last November’s World Championship in Spain.

Bournia is coming off a gold medal in the women’s singles divisions 1-2 at the inaugural 2023 tournament in Egypt and is clearly looking to get back on the podium. With her success, in fact, the 16-year-old from Kalamata also got 13 points in the March world ranking, where she is third in class 1.

Of course, the memories of the bronze medal at the World Championship in Granada, which is a historic distinction for the Greek table tennis of the A.M.A., are still fresh.

In the corresponding men’s class, Chrysikos will chase a high ranking with the main purpose of getting points for the international ranking list of his class and improving his position from the 22nd of this month. Our champion has been participating in international tournaments since 2022 and his best moment is the gold medal he won last year in Jordan in the men’s doubles with an Egyptian teammate in the MD4 category.

The Italian Open of the Fa20 level gathers almost 300 athletes from 34 countries and “is as strong as ever, presenting a truly global line up”, as the ITTF characteristically wrote in its report.