The A1 national category 2023-2024 table tennis championships premiered today 11/11 with strong matches, spectacle and emotions. They started in three cities of the country with two competitions, specifically in Athens, Thessaloniki and Florina.
In the opening weekend came the Panathinaikos-Olympiakos derby at the Peace and Friendship Stadium for the women’s A1 and this was the match that stood out in the program.
The champion Olympiacos was the favorite and confirmed it with a score of 4-1. In Florina, AEK achieved, in their ideal start, a great victory with 4-2 against Sarises in the second round of last year’s championship. In the men’s Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK all got their first wins, but beyond the results there were other strong points from the opening day. The huge Kallinikos Kreanga wore the shirt of Aris Nikias at SEF, reappeared in the Greek league after 28 years and experienced the apotheosis of the public, while in the gymnasium of HAN Thessaloniki, a European men’s singles champion made his debut with Panathinaikos, Frenchman Emmanuel Lebesson (took the title in 2016)!
In the top women’s category, the first matches were played at SEF and the indoor gym of Florina. The first derby of the year went to Olympiakos, who are still looking very strong with top Europeans Pesotska and Pota.
The progress of the match Panathinaikos-Olympiakos 1-4 in detail:
Katerina Toliou-Georgina Pota 1-3 (5-11, 4-11, 11-6, 4-11)
Ana Tofand-Margarita Pesotska 0-3 (7-11, 7-11, 2-11)
Konstantina Paridis-Aliki Kioufi 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9)
Toliou-Pesotska 0-3 (10-12, 8-11, 8-11)
Parisi-Pota 0-3 (7-11, 10-12, 5-11)
In the municipal gymnasium of Florina, the victory of AEK over Sarissa with 4-2 stood out. In the most notable individual results, Bulgaria’s Jovkova defeated Serva Maksuti and Gerasimatou defeated France’s Lew Judith in the final.
HIGH MOMENT IN THE MEN’S A1 PREMIERE CREANGA’S DEPOSIT
In the A1 national men’s category, the top moment was not a competitive event but the apotheosis of Kreanga when he entered the table for his first match in the Greek championship after 28 whole years! In the match against Olympiakos, he faced Croatian Pukar and lost 3-0 with “full” sets. The dozens of friends of Aris Nikias, as well as many more who were in the stands, applauded him and applauded him protractedly for a minute. It was a touching moment of absolute recognition and reward for the invaluable contribution of our legendary champion to Greek table tennis. In fact, precisely for this moment, the matches at all the tables stopped and the team executives also applauded. Close to Creanga in this special struggle were his family, his wife and two daughters. In the link The unsurpassed Kallinikos Kreanga, the former world and European champion, who remains competitively strong at the age of 52, spoke on EFOEPA WEB TV.
In the news, of course, of the opening day in the A1 category and the first matches of Emmanuel Lebesson. The European men’s singles champion in 2016 made his debut with Panathinaikos in Thessaloniki and of course gave even more shine to the championship. It should be noted that in his premiere, the Frenchman had a lot of difficulty until he defeated the Bulgarian Petios Krastev, who until last year was playing for the “greens” and this year returned to Pera, with a 3-2 set.
Panathinaikos, which did not have another foreigner in its composition, scored two victories with 4-0. The champion Olympiacos, which did not bring the former number 1 of the world, the German Dimitri Ovcharov, to the first two days, also had two easy victories in the SEF with the fans admiring Yannis Sgouropoulos and Giorgos Stamatouros, who this year can and are competing normally in A1 alongside abroad. The reinforced AEK started with two wins against Rethymno and Ari. Among the new faces of A1, who caught the eye in the same room, the experienced ex-international Spanish Cantero, the French Duane of AEK, the Polish Vidurek of OEA Rethymnon, etc.
Summary of today’s results in the A1 national category:
In the men’s A1 in Athens:
OEA Rethymno-AEK 1-4
Aris Nikias-Olympiakos 0-4
Olympiacos-OEA Rethymno 4-0
AEK-Aris Nikias 4-0
In the men’s A1 in Thessaloniki:
OEA Thessaloniki-AO Tataula 4-1
Panathinaikos-Pera Athens 4-0
Panathinaikos-AO Tataula 4-0
Pera Athens-OEA Thessaloniki 4-1
In the women’s A1 in Athens:
Pera Athens-GAO Piraeus 4-0
Panathinaikos-Olympiakos 1-4
Panathinaikos-GAO Piraeus 4-0
Olympiacos-Pera Athens 4-0
In the women’s A1 in Florina:
ASEA Kavala-AEK 0-4
Sarises Florina-HAN Thessaloniki 4-1
HAN Thessaloniki-ASEA Kavala 4-1
AEK-Sarises Florina 4-2
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