Malmö, Sweden has put on its festive season and welcomes the best national teams of the old continent in table tennis.
From today, Sunday 10/09, until next Sunday 17/09, the highly advanced country in the Olympic sport is hosting the 2023 European Team Championship and Greece, consistent in the big events, will be present again this year with both of its representatives complexes.
He traveled to the city yesterday via Copenhagen and is represented by the athletes Panagiotis Gionis, Yiannis Sgouropoulos, George Stamatouros, Konstantinos Angelakis, the athletes Katerina Toliou, Malamatenia Papadimitriou, Konstantina Paridis, Ioanna Gerasimatou and the national federal coaches Costas Vatsaklis (men) and George Karytsa (women’s).
Having secured a place among the 24 countries in the final phase, our national teams will give their all for the best possible representation. The men’s team is in Group 4 with Portugal (leader) and Hungary and will be looking to qualify for the round of 16.
It premieres today at 14:00 Greek time with Portugal.
The women’s national team is in Group 8 with Sweden (leader) and Spain and is basically aiming for performances that will make it competitive. Today at 17:00 facing the host country.
The European Teams Championships will take place in the comfortable Malmo Arena and on 4 tables. Nearby Halmstad hosted the 2018 World Championships, which also involved the team event, while Sweden again took over the European Championships after Gothenburg in 1990 (individual and team). The men’s national team 4 comes from Denmark’s strong training camp in Brodby, and again has in its composition Gionis, who was absent due to injury from the European championships in 2021 (in the team) and 2022 (in the individual events). Ten years after the historic Svesat European Championship for Greece, where he won the bronze medal in the singles and Greece the silver in the men’s team, the top defender will lead in Malmo the effort for a positive course. The first two places in the groups qualify for the next phase (round of 16).
“We are happy to be among the best teams in Europe again and can’t wait for the games to start. We have a difficult group and a difficult mission. We have against us two traditionally great powers of Europe, Hungary and Portugal, and we will try for the best possible result”, said Vatsaklis.
THE COMPOSITIONS OF THE OPPONENTS
The opponents in the 4th group are also presented with the best rosters. Portugal is entered with Marcos Freitas (number 4 in Europe) Joao Geraldo (No. 16), Thiago Apollonia (No. 21) and Joao Monteiro (No. 57). Benke Majoros (No. 39), Adam Zudi (No. 54), Tamas Lakatos (No. 84) and Nandor Etseki (No. 131) are on the Hungarian team. In the Greek team, Gionis is this month number 32 in the current European ranking. Sgouropoulos at No 55), Stamatouros at No 179, while Angelakis is not rated.
The women’s national team had a very difficult draw in the 8th group since on the one hand it meets a stable value, such as the host country and on the other hand Spain, which is largely based on athletes of Chinese origin. She has the satisfaction of just participating in the finals, but she wants to bring out her own potential in Malmö and claim as much as she can.
“For us it is already important that we are in the finals of the European championship and we are going to enjoy our participation. In Malmö we know that we have to play two very difficult games against great teams. Sweden competes on its own soil and has very high level athletes. Spain also has Chinese women in its composition, They are both very high-quality teams and the effort is to be as competitive as possible, to push and show our own value”, emphasized Karytsas.
Sweden has on its player list Linda Bergstrom (number 15 in Europe), Kristina Selberg (No. 27), Philippa Bergand (No. 74), Matilda Hanson (No. 157) and Alma Rose (No. 247). Spain features Maria Xiao (No. 17), Sofia Xuan Zhang (No. 46), Yana Riera (No. 169) and Maria Berthosa (No. 193). In Greece, Toliou is in September at number 41 in the European ranking, Papadimitriou at 128, Paridis at 206, while Gerasimatou is not rated.
THE EXECUTION SYSTEM
All participating teams can fight for the European title (in the final stage there is no division into categories). There are 8 groups of 3 groups in both men and women. The seedings for the draws were based on the ranking.
In each group they play “all against all”, that is, each team has two matches. The teams, which will be limited to the last place in the groups, complete their participation in Malmö. The winners of the groups, as well as the teams that will occupy the 2nd place, advance to the round of “16” and from then on the knockout system is applied.
The winner of the 1st group goes to the top of the board and the winner of the 2nd group to its base. The teams that will prevail in the 3rd and 4th groups will be drawn for places 8 and 9. The winners of groups 5, 6, 7 and 8 will also be in the draw and respectively the 2nd teams of group with the prediction that they will find themselves in the opposite half of the table from their group winner.
Each men’s or women’s team lines up at least 3 athletes and during the match can substitute the 1st or 2nd athlete (in the 4th or 5th individual match). As has been the case for many years, the first team to complete three (3) individual victories reaches the final victory.
The schedule of Greece’s matches in the groups (in Greek time):
In men:
10/09/2023 14:00 Portugal-Greece Table 3
12/09/2023 17:00 Hungary-Greece Table 4
To women:
10/09/2023 17:00 Sweden-Greece Table 1
12/09/2023 20:00 Spain-Greece Table 4
QUALIFICATIONS ALSO FOR THE WORLD TEAM IN BUSAN
Sweden’s European Championships will also serve as a qualifier for the 2024 World Team Championships, which will be held in Busan, Korea. Europe has been granted a quota of twelve (12) teams for the World Cup finals. The qualification system provides for:
A) The eight (8) national teams that will enter the quarter-finals of the 2023 European Championship will automatically qualify.
B) The remaining four (4) places will be taken by the four (4) teams with the highest score (according to the ITTF World Team Ranking, published in October 2023) counting, however, only the teams that have reached the round of “16” in this year’s European Championship.
Kostas Vatsaklis spoke during Denmark’s training camp about how his defensive style of play is improving and he will have a similar experience in Malmo. After the official invitation, which he had received from the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), he will participate in a Workshop on the occasion of the top European honors that a small country, like Greece, has since 2011 (with a men’s national team, Kreanga, Gioni, Sgouropoulo). In his speech in the hall of the Olympic center in Brodby, he had defenders Gionis and Angelakis as assistants.
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