Seven Greeks selected in the Hungarian WTT Youth Contender

Very quickly after the Greek Open of Loutraki, the strong news continues for Greek table tennis at the level of development ages. Seven Greek elites from the categories of boys, girls, juniors and teenagers will represent us from tomorrow 02/11 at the Youth Contender of the World Table Tennis in Hungary, while two of them will expand their international participation by competing immediately after in the corresponding tournament in Slovakia .

Also in the first month, the official confirmation came from the European Sports Union (ETTU) that E.F.O.E.P.A. will also organize the new year European tournament for the Under 13 and Under 15 age categories.

In the WTT Youth Contender of Hungary, which will be held in Sobateli from 02 to 08/11, the teenagers Stathis Manolopoulos (OEA Rethymnon), Marios Katsaprakakis (Athina Maggoufanas), Yannis Anastasiadis (Poseidon Loutrakiou), the teenager Malamatenia Papadimitriou will take part (Olympic), the boy Yiannis Koutras (Poseidon Loutrakiou), Yiannis Kioseloglou from the boys category (Poseidon Loutrakiou) and the 11-year-old Marios Alexandridis (Telamon of Salamina). ETTU has meanwhile published the Europe Youth Series calendar for 2024 and included tournaments for next April again in Loutraki.

In the WTT Youth Contender institution the attention of the people of the sport is focused on Europe at the moment, as the tournament in Italy is in progress and the ones in Hungary and Slovakia will follow in November. In Sobateli the beginning is made with the boys’ categories, the six children are moving to the city today and first of all they are looking for the remarkable performances in an established, and with a high level of competition, open. 18-year-old Manolopoulos (number 3 in the Greek youth rating table) and 16-year-old Katsaprakakis (No. 17) from Pefkis Table Tennis are making their Youth Contender debut, and then they will go together to Senek to test their strength and corresponding event in Slovakia (06-12/11). The first will compete in the U19 category, the second in the U17 and U19.

The 16-year-old Anastasiadis from Thessaloniki (No. 9) will also make his first appearance in Hungary as a Youth Contender of the world federation. He will check his playing status in the simple U17 and U19. 15-year-old Koutras (No. 1 in the Greek ranking among boys and 8 among teenagers), 13-year-old Kioseloglou (No. 1 among boys and 4 among boys) and 11-year-old Alexandridis (No. 2 among mini boys and 13 among boys) come from Europe Youth of Loutraki. In Sobateli they will participate in two categories, in U15 and U17 the first, in U13 and U15 the second and in U11 and U13 the third. Accompanying Anastasiadis, Koutras, Kioseloglou Alexandridis and responsible for their technical guidance is Poseidon Loutraki’s coach Christos Tsarsitalides.

Papadimitriou, the leading Greek in juniors and young women, just yesterday in Otoček completed her participation in the WTT Feeder men-women of Slovenia and at the end of the week she will do new racing tests in Sobateli and in Youth Contender. Born in 2004, she competes last year in the under-19 category.

CONFIDENCE AGAIN IN GREECE FOR EUROPE YOUTH 2024

At the level of the Europe Youth Series, a similar effort at young ages but only for athletes in the children’s and children’s categories, ETTU has revealed its calendar for 2024 (ETTU.org – Bosnia and Herzegovina to Join European Youth Series in 2024). In its last meeting its board of directors.

ETTU awarded the rights to host the Europe Youth Series matches to six confederations. All the hosts from 2023 have confirmed their interest in taking over these events again, while this year Bosnia-Herzegovina became an additional organizer in the program.

“The Corinthian Loutraki will once again host the Greek Open from April 3rd to 7th. In this event, the young players will participate in team, mixed doubles and doubles events instead of mixed teams,” says the ETTU report on Greece.

Elsewhere, he emphasizes that the year will also start this year with the Croatia Open in Osijek (February 21-25) “and will include singles and doubles matches for boys and girls for the under-15 and under-13 categories. Mixed teams will also compete in both categories.”

Turkey’s tournament will be held from March 13 to 17 in Nevsehir – Cappadocia (the one that was supposed to be held at the end of November this year was cancelled), Bosnia and Herzegovina will make their debut in Sarajevo between April 29 and May 3 , the Serbian Open will move to Belgrade from 25 to 29 September and the final event of the Europe Youth 2024 series will again be hosted in the Czech Republic, in Plzen, from 16 to 20 October.