European Team Championship: Sweden return to the top, Germany retain the sceptres

He waited impatiently for 21 long years and returned to the top of Europe on familiar ground.

Sweden emerged tonight 17/09, in Malmö, winner of the European table tennis championship for men, took the championship from Germany by winning 3-1 in the final and recalled the countless moments of joy and pride, which it had given its audience from the first years of history of the institution!

Amidst apotheosis, Sweden reached the men’s 15th European title! Germany retained the women’s scepter showing that they were clearly superior.

He had defeated Romania in the 2021 final, Romania he defeated now and even with an emphatic 3-0, his “favorite” score throughout the championship! He reached 9 gold medals in the event. The big event was completed after 8 days of action and we remind you that Greece was also completely consistent with the appointment. It was eliminated in the groups without a win, but it was important that it made a good effort against very strong teams and found itself this year among the best 24 of the continent in men and women.

WITH TWO VICTORIES BY MEREGARD AND ONE BY KARLSON

In today’s final all fans of the sport in Sweden had their attention focused on the men’s team final. In the spring of 2002, their national team had won the last championship in Europe, in the final of 2011 they had lost to Germany and in general the latter is undoubtedly the leading power of the new era. In Malmö, however, they went without three of their key players (Dimitri Ovcharov, Qiu Dang and Patrik Franziska) and at the same time Sweden, playing at home with a very strong 4, knew that they had potential for gold as well. He demonstrated it in action with the great young Truls Meregard as a guide. In the final he achieved two victories from position 1 and the second against the legendary Timo Bol. The all-time top European had equalized at 1-1 by overturning the 0-2 set against Matias Falk and went to repeat it against Meregard. The Scandinavian, however, found the solutions, prevailed in the 5th set and gave the trigger for a celebration in the stands and on the playing field. At 1-1 between the teams, left-hander Christian Karlsson gave the host country the lead again when he beat Kei Stuber very hard with a 3-2 set, while Benedict Duda was the first to win the match for Germany, which has won 9 European titles in the last 15 years. .

The huge Jørgen Persson, a member of the “group”, who in the late ’80s also made Sweden world champion (with Waldner, Apelgren, Lindh, later P. Karlsson) is included in the list of those who won first place in the European team championship as athletes and coaches. He also had Jon Persson as his partner in coaching. Sweden’s fourth athlete was Anton Selberg. Germany did not have Jörg Roskopf in technical guidance, but for the first time in a European championship, Lars Hilser. Fourth athlete was Ricardo Walter

Details of the Sweden-Germany 3-1 match:

Truls Meregard-Benedict Duda 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 14-12)

Matias Falk-Timo Boll 2-3 (11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 10-12)

Christian Carlson-Kay Stuber 3-2 (11-5, 7-11, 11-3, 11-13, 11-4)

Meregard-Boll 3-2 (11-6, 11-8, 4-11, 6-11, 11-5)

Portugal and France took the bronze medal after losing in last year’s semi-finals. The Iberians (who were in Greece’s group) competed with Marcos Freitas, Thiago Apollonia, Joao Geraldo, Joao Monteiro and the French with Felix Lebrun, Alexis Lebrun, Can Acousou and Jules Roland.

GERMANY WOMEN UNTOUCHED IN THE FINAL TOO

In the women’s team, the two arguably best European teams of recent times battled it out for the gold medal, but Germany generally seemed to have the upper hand. It’s really impressive that she won all her games 3-0 and found the solutions even in the most difficult moments with tremendous concentration and calmness. A team, which for decades now relies on athletes of Chinese origin, but of course also presents its own production of excellent athletes, such as Mittelham, who two years ago were admired by the Greek sports fans in Thessaloniki as the winner of the European Top 16.

In the final, San Sciona, with the Asian grip on the racket, no matter how hard she was pressed, did not lose a set to the former European champion Elizabeta Samara. In the second match, Han Ying with the defensive style of play lost the 1st set to the in-form Bernadette Sox, but she did not lose her stability to take the next “close” sets and make Germany the super favorite. The third game was also uneventful. Nina Mittelham twice found herself behind against Andrea Dragoman, equalized and prevailed in extra time to make the final 3-0.

With the 9th gold medal in the continental event, the German women’s team equals the performance of the previous sole record holder, Hungary. Led by coaches Tamara Boros and Elke Sol-Suss from Croatia and Germany respectively, they … avenged their loss to Romania in the final at the European Games in Krakow two months ago.

Since 2013, Germany and Romania have participated in 5 of the 7 European Women’s Championship finals. Furthermore, these two teams met in the final in the 2019 and 2021 championships.

The development of the Germany-Romania 3-0 final in detail:

San Sciona-Elizabeta Samara 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-8)

Han Ying-Bernadette Sox 3-1 (14-16, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10)

Nina Mittelham-Andrea Dragoman 3-2 (5-11. 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 12-10)

Germany also fielded Sabine Winter and Annette Kaufmann in Malmö. Viorel Filimon’s Romania also had Adina Diaconou and Elena Zacharias on the roster.

Portugal and France won the bronze medal. The country from the Iberian Peninsula competed with Fu Yu, Sao Jeni, Ines Matos and Matilde Pinto. France fielded Yuan Jia Nan, Pritika Pavande and Audrey Zarif in all matches, while they had Charlotte Lutz as a substitute.