Balkan Youth Championship, Orestiada 2023: Start with full action for the team

With the opening ceremony at the indoor gym “Nikos Samaras” and the team draws, tonight 27/06 the first act in the Under 15 and Under 19 Balkan championship of Orestiada was recorded.

The northernmost urban center of Greece becomes from tomorrow 28/06 to Sunday 02/07 the focus of table tennis in the Balkans and aspires to present a generally very good image, worthy of the championship and expectations.

After all, it has all the conditions, it mainly has the passion of the people of the sport in Orestiada and it is no coincidence that the Balkan Union (BTTU) entrusted the city, around this time last year, with an event with a historical connotation at the same time. In the 35 years of the institution’s life, it is the 30th edition and coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Balkan Table Tennis Union. In addition, the akritic city feels the distinct joy of holding an international Olympic sports event in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the creation of Nea Orestiada (1923-2023).

Every day from tomorrow there will be Live Streaming from 4 tables through the EFOEPA channel on YouTube. At the link https://shorturl.at/HY145 the sports fans will be able to find the match they are interested in on the tables from 1 to 4. Tomorrow Wednesday 4 matches of Greece will be broadcast. Also, the link of E.F.O.E.P.A. for the update about the Balkan Youth Championship 2023 is https://app.ttscore.io/customer/844/event/259#. There, those interested find the number of entries in each category, the names of male and female athletes and the location of the gym, while the raffles and results will be added along the way.

With the boost that the Greek soil can give, our national teams will seek to win medals in another Balkan youth championship. In the team event, which opens the program, each country can display 4 athletes. Our internationals finished their preparation early today and tomorrow they compete in the groups with the first goal of entering the top 8.

The games are co-organized by the Hellenic Philatelic Table Tennis Federation and the local Filia Gymnastics Club under the auspices of the Balkan Union and the support of the municipality of Orestiada and the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The two Authorities and the companies TransCombi Express Salonica Ltd, Mediterra Institute, DONIC and www.ktelevrou.gr are the main sponsors.

Eleven countries are participating and the entries reached 150. At the opening ceremony, Greece was the first to appear and the junior international from Orestiada, Katerina Alexoudis, was holding her flag. The local sports fans, who had also spread Greek flags, worshiped our athletes. The parade of the rest of the countries followed and all the children received warm applause.

The president of E.F.O.E.P.A. Costas Papageorgiou greeted in English. He welcomed the teams, thanked everyone who helps in the organizational part of the championship and especially the local community. He wished good games and spoke of the message of friendship, which Greece conveys with the motto “Good athletes, better neighbors, best friends”. Immediately after, he awarded the mayor of Orestiada, Vassilis Mavridis, on behalf of the federation, who emphasized in his brief greeting how important it was for the municipality to host such a large event, especially on the 100th anniversary of the creation of Nea Orestiada. He expressed confidence that it will be one of the best Balkan championships in history.

This was followed by a short speech by the Bosnian president of BTTU Mirsad Pajevic, who did not fail to note that the championship is being held on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Balkan Union and to commemorate Christos Christodoulatos, who passed away last year. He mentioned that the former president of EFOEPA was also president in the Balkans as well as honorary president.

Christoudoulatos has not been forgotten by Filia Orestiadas either, who presents a small photo exhibition with historical references to the Balkan Union in the gym area and dedicates it to the memory of the leading figure of the sport. After all, the name of Christodoulatos was associated with the old era as an international athlete (he was also present at the Pre-Balkan Games in Athens in 1963), but also with the newer Balkan Games as a factor.

From an elevated point of the gym, Stavroula Kostopoulou sang our national anthem at the opening ceremony. The ceremony (which was broadcast live on Facebook live from the federation’s page) closed with traditional dances from the Lyceum of Greek Women, dances that… excited the missions. The program was presented by EFOEPA public relations manager Xenia Stathis, while the translation from English was helped by Anita Khachatryan, the coach of Thermaio Thermis.

THE OPPONENTS OF GREECE IN THE GROUPS

Immediately after the opening ceremony, the group draw took place and Greece also found out its opponents in the first phase. In each age category, 3 groups were formed and the best teams qualify for the quarterfinals. The teenagers top Group 3 and face Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro. The juniors are in the 3rd group with Moldova (leader), Bosnia/Herzegovina and Albania. The boys in the 3rd group face Bulgaria (leader), Moldova and North Macedonia and the girls in the 1st group against Romania (leader) and Bosnia.

The schedule of Greece’s matches in the groups:

National Youth:

At 10:30 Greece-North Macedonia

At 14:30 Greece-Serbia Table 3

At 17:30 Greece-Montenegro

Junior National Team:

At 12:00 Bosnia/Herzegovina-Greece Table 4

At 14:30 Albania-Greece

At 17:30 Moldova Table 3

Children’s National Team:

At 09:00 Greece-B. Macedonia

At 12:00 Bulgaria-Greece

At 16:00 Greece-Moldova

Girls National Team:

At 12:00 Romania-Greece Table 1

At 16:00 Bosnia/Herzegovina-Greece

We present again the composition of the national teams for the Balkan championship together with the athletes who have the right to participate only in the individual events:

Junior category:

Alexander Madesis

Stathis Manolopoulos

Dionysis Timamopoulos

Alexander Alexopoulos

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Yannis Anastasiadis

Konstantinos Milikoudis

Junior category:

Chrysi Fotiadou

Lemonia Gaidatzis

Stella Tzaridou

Evangelia Meramvelliotakis

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Katerina Alexoudi

Dimitra Petsiva

Children’s category:

Yannis Koutras

George Kosmas

Konstantinos Fakaros

Petros Liotsis

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Yannis Kioseloglou

Konstantinos Alexoudis

Girls category:

Mavra Kontopoulou

Vasiliki Bula

Alkistis Kasimi

Stella Mavromatakis

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Angela Noure

Christina Tzenidis

# Responsible coaches are Christos Vatsaklis for the teenagers, Yiannis Stavrou for the juniors, Konstantinos Kostopoulos for the boys, Dimitris Papadimitriou for the girls.

# After the opening ceremony the local organizers held a small reception in the lobby of the gym for the officials and members of the missions. In addition to food and refreshments, there was also live music led by the award-winning saxophonist and composer Konstantinos Kallias, father of the athlete of the National Alexandroupolis, George.

# Entry is free to the public

# The Organizing Committee consists of the chairman Kostas Papageorgiou and the members Apostolos Alexoudis, Solon Mavridis, Xenia Stathis and Stavros Haritoudis.

# Mirjana Petrovic is the Competition Manager of the league. Ioanna Ztaliu took over as arbitrator, with Gordana Vlaskalic and Efi Zaharopoulou as deputy arbitrators.

# The matches are held on 12 tables, while another 4 are in a second room for warm-up.