Historic moment for Sarises Florina as well, they won the silver medal at the Women’s Europe Trophy

The Sarises of Florina won the 2nd place in the Europe Trophy for women and the Greek table tennis welcomes with great joy and pride an excellent, a very effective day at the collective level. After Olympiakos, who in the afternoon emerged champion in the men’s Europe Trophy, lived his own great moment, honoring the country and the team of Northern Greece. At the Europe Trophy Grand Final, which took place on the weekend of 18 and 19/03 in Mirandela, Portugal, with the participation of the 8 best teams, they overcame the silver medal! In the final they were defeated by the French Zoe Le Tour 3-0, while in the 4th they eliminated one of the favorites, the also French Saint-Pierrez, 3-2. This is undoubtedly the greatest success of the Sarissas in their short history and at the same time the most important in the sport by an association of the Region. The Sarises had achieved their main goal yesterday by going to the knockouts with the 2nd place in their group and yesterday they did something more by giving a new distinction to the women’s table tennis of the country after the gold medal of Panathinaikos in last year’s opening Europe Trophy.

In the afternoon, the Sarisses reserved new emotions when they overturned the predictions against Entente Saint Pierraise. Lew Judith did extremely well against her compatriots and as she prevailed with an upset from 0-2 sets in the first match, she gave strength and faith to her team for the rest. Indeed, Bernadette Balid doubled immediately after the victories and now the conditions were created for the qualification to the final. The Hungarian lost in her second game, in between our young international Despina Aba was also defeated (who also deservedly represented our own young generation and gained valuable experiences playing in both phases of the tournament), but in the end she “talked” again with Liu’s quality, sending Sarises to the final with a score of 3-2!

In the afternoon, the team fought their “battle” in the final against the 2nd favorite of the games, TT Joue les Tours. The French club faced it again on Saturday in the group, losing again 3-0, but exhausted the chances of another surprise. At the beginning she could take the lead, but Balid broke in 5 sets, while Liu was also completely competitive in the next match. The Sarises proudly reached the silver medal and proved their potential even outside the borders after the 2nd place in the Greek A1. Coach Mark Pink relied on the same trio he had in the first phase of the Cup, in Slovakia, where Sarisses had won 2nd place in Region C.

“After a long weekend, where we did a very good team work, we are very happy with 2nd place. After a very good match in the semi-final against a top French team we went through to the final which is a great success for us! We look forward to the next season to come back stronger”, said Bernadette Balid on the EFOEPA website, on behalf of the athletes. The Hungarian coach of the association Mark Pink noted: “I am pleased with the effort and performance of each athlete. Unfortunately in the final the opposing team was better this time, but we did our best and we are happy for 2nd place. To achieve this result we had to overcome some very good teams. This is a great result and experience for our club, I’m happy to be a part of it and we’ll do our best next time to get the gold”!

The evolution of the final Sarises Florina-TT Joue les Tours 0-3 in detail:

Bernadette Balid-Audrey Zarif 2-3 (11-7, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 1-6)

Liu Judith-Li He 1-3 (6-11, 9-11, 13-11, 4-11)

Despina Aba-Nolwen Fort 0-3 (9-11, 7-11, 4-11)

In detail the development of the semi-final Entente Saint Pierraise-Sarises Florinas 2-3:

Stephanie Louillet-Lew Judith 2-3 (11-7, 11-4, 4-11, 7-11, 4-6)

Lucie Gauthier-Bernadette Balid 0-3 (9-11, 8-11, 5-11)

Jan Robes-Despina Aba 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-6)

Louillet-Balid 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-6)

Gauthier-Liu 1-3 (11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 6-11)

The French Entente Saint Pierraise and the Croatian STK Aquaestil Duga Resa settled for 3rd place.