At the Czech Para Table Tennis Open table tennis, Evanthia-Irini Bournia’s class merged with the next one, becoming a 1-2 class with a last-minute change (always of course for wheelchair athletes), but again she came out strong and fully prepared from each side to reach the gold medal.
In the decisive match of the single group, she faced an athlete from class 2, i.e. she had an extra degree of difficulty, but she managed to prevail in five sets. He thus provided an ideal follow-up to the first place he had achieved in the corresponding ITTF Fa20 Para Open in Jordan three weeks ago in class 1.
The young champion also secures a new ranking improvement and it is considered certain that next month she will be at number 3 in the world ranking of class 1 from June 4.
In this tournament, she had Eleftheria Daundakis as her technical guide.
Class 1 was also due to take place in Ostrava, albeit with the usual few entries, but a last-minute variation resulted in a merger with Class 2. Finland’s Aino Siri Tapola, ranked number 2 in the world, did not go in the games and women’s category 1 could not be done. A unified class 1-2 and a single group of four female athletes were formed. According to the regulations, in fact, this meant that the classic three medals would not be awarded, but only two winners, one for gold and one for silver.
In her first match, Bournia defeated Serb Zeljana Ristic in 3-1 sets (11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4). The opponent is from the same class. In the second match there were no difficulties against the Dutch Elizabeth Maria Boers (number 9 this month in the world ranking table of class 1) and another victory came with 3-0 sets (11-3, 11-3, 11-5).
Everything would be decided in the third and last match against the opponent, also Dutch, Femke Koben, who also had two positive results until that moment. In a match with fluctuations, Bournia took a 2-0 set lead and accepted the tie at 2-2. In the “against” set, however, she was very stable and reached the final victory. It should be noted that Coben is number 10 in the world ranking of class 2 athletes.
The evolution: 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 9-11 and 11-3
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