In Croatia, six Greek athletes for the 1st European Youth Table Tennis Series

The Croatian Open table tennis kicks off the so-called European Youth Series on Wednesday, it will be held in the city of Osijek 26-30/04 and will gather six Greek athletes, four boys and two girls.

At noon on Tuesday, Giorgos Kosmas of D.A.O. traveled to Croatia. Tavrou, Yiannis Koutras of Poseidon Loutraki (U15), Stella Mavromataki of OA Chania, Georgia Spanou of ASEA Sarises Florina (U15), Yiannis Kioseloglou of Poseidon Loutraki and Konstantinos Alexoudis of GS Filia Orestiada (U13).

In the technical guidance will be the coaches Konstantinos Kostopoulos of AS FEA Ioannina, Christos Tsarsitalides (AO Poseidon Loutraki) and Manos Alaroupi (ASEA Kavala).

The new institution of ETTU concerns evaluated tournaments for the specific categories, it gives new incentives and experiences to the children with individual and team competitions and we remind you that for October 2023 a tournament of the same series is planned in Loutraki (between 25-29/10 and will be the third of the year).

“Croatian organizers have expressed their enthusiasm for the tournament and believe it will be a great opportunity for young players to play many matches against opponents of the same age from all over Europe,” ETTU notes in its report and about the entries it says : Children from Azerbaijan, Croatia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, North Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Hungary will compete in the 1st European Youth Series , with 53 male and 42 female athletes in the under-15 singles and 29 male and 21 female athletes in the corresponding under-13 event. The venue is the beautiful ‘Gradski VRT’.

In the group stage, which opens the schedule on Wednesday, Greece will be represented by two teams. They are made up of boys and girls guided by the successful application from last year’s Europe U13 Challenge in Montenegro.

Incidentally, an event that immediately developed into a European Championship of the same category. The European Under 13 Championships will also take place in Croatia (14-18/06/2023, Zagreb) and it was also a reason for several children to seek preparation tests in the first European Youth Series.

The mixed children’s team (U15) consists only of Greeks. It is staffed by Koutras, Kosmas, Mavromataki and Spanou. In the mixed children’s team (U13), Alexoudis and Kioseloglou are complemented by the Croatians Nera Vujazinovic and Loretta Madic, as the announcement allows for the formation of teams from different nationalities.

The final declarations of participation in the team are 11 and 10 respectively, with the host Croatia having 3. In doubles, the Greek couples are Kosmas/Koutra, Mavromataki/Spanou and Kioseloglou/Alexoudis.

Giorgos Kosmas was crowned champion of Greece in children’s singles and doubles just the day before yesterday, and in April he is at number 2 in the Greek K15 rating table. Giannis Koutras is the winner of the final of the 2023 development championships and number 1 on the rating board.

14-year-old Stella Mavromataki, who competed last year in Montenegro, in the precursor tournament of the European Under 13 Championships, is number 3 on the girls’ ranking list and in the Panhellenic Championship of Loutraki she was third in the girls’ team. Her peer, Georgia Spanou, who in the same event placed 5-8 in the girls’ singles, is at number 6 in the table.

13-year-old Yiannis Kioseloglou, also present in 2022 in Montenegro, won the gold medal in the boys’ team in Loutraki and is the first in the Greek evaluation in the boys’ category. Konstantinos Alexoudis, who is the same age, was named Greece’s runner-up in the boys’ doubles the day before yesterday. It is number 2 in the Greek rating table.

In the same city, we remind you that the qualifying stage 2 of the European Team Championship 2023 will follow at the beginning of May, during the three days 5-7, where our national men’s and women’s teams will also participate.

The Greek delegation flew to Zagreb and from there took a bus to arrive in Osijek in the early afternoon and train later at the tournament gym.

At the airport of the Croatian capital there was a special meeting for Konstantinos Kostopoulos. He saw his former athletes from his time as a federation coach in the Maldives. There are a total of eight children (from the categories of men, teenagers, girls and children), who are in Zagreb for a training experience that will last four months.

The 46-year-old coach was aware of this trip, had spoken to the delegation and the Maldivian athletes arranged to go to the airport to see him. The meeting took place in a very nice atmosphere, Kostopoulos (who also made a relevant post on social media) mentioned his new collaboration in Ioannina and the internationals from the island country got to know all the Greek athletes, taking pictures with them.