Last fall, the National Table Tennis Teams had finished the qualifying stage 1 in Athens in the best way, when they won the first place in their groups in the B category, and now it comes to Osijek in the decisive stage 2 where they seek to take the the tickets for the finals of the European Championship in Malmö, September 10-17.
The qualifying phase takes place at the “NS?D Gradski VRT” gym from next Friday until next Sunday. Our representative groups leave on Wednesday for the city of Croatia. In the national men’s team, the federal coach, Kostas Vatsaklis, has included Giannis Sgouropoulos, George Stamatouros (Olympiakos), Konstantinos Angelakis and George Konstantinopoulos (Panathinaikos).
In our national women’s team, the federal coach, Giorgos Karytsas, will rely on Katerina Toliou, Konstantina Paridis (Panathinaikos), Malamatenia Papadimitriou and Aliki Kioufi (Olympiakos).
The expedition will go to Zagreb and from there it will go by road to Osijek. Panagiotis Gionis was out due to the left shoulder problem. He will stay in Athens to gain ground in the treatment that follows and aims to be ready for the World Championships in individual events (Durban, 20-28/05).
On the men’s side, Greece is in the fifth group with Spain (leader), Norway and Ireland.
The women’s national team will compete in the second group against Italy (leader) and Finland.
Five groups were formed for men and four for women and the total entries are 17 and 14 respectively.
For the final phase in Malmö, there are eleven qualifying places left for men and ten for women from Osijek. The winners of the groups, as well as the second-placed teams, will qualify for the final stage of the European Championship.
The third teams of the groups will have another chance to qualify through playoff matches. They will compete for two remaining women’s and one men’s spots.
The schedule of the games of Greece in our times:
In the 5th group of men:
Friday 05/05/23:
10:30 Ireland-Greece
17:30 Spain-Greece
Saturday 06/05/23:
10:30 Greece-Norway
In the 2nd group of women:
Friday 05/05/23:
20:30 Italy-Greece
Saturday 06/05/23:
13:30 Greece-Finland
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
