AEK kept the pan-Hellenic title in the Young men’s team, HAN Thessaloniki champion in the Young women’s team

News with a historical dimension came out on Saturday 24/02 on the second day of the Panhellenic table tennis championship for Young Men-Young Women, at the indoor gym “Yiannis Bourousis” in Karditsa.

In the team of athletes up to 21 years of age, AEK kept the pan-Hellenic title, which it had won last year in Derveni Korinthia, completed two by reaching AO Pefkis and AO Tataula, but became the first men’s team with two consecutive firsts in the institution. It was the 1st favorite and in the final it beat ASEA Kavala 3-0.

In the women’s team up to 21 years of age, HAN Thessaloniki was crowned champion of Greece and is the first team from outside Attica to do so in the short history of the competition. In fact, in the final, the number 4 seeding had to make a big comeback from 0-2 against the 1st favorite, GAO Piraeus. The excellent event continues in the afternoon with the singles groups and will conclude tomorrow 25/02 with the singles and doubles finals for male and female athletes.

In the Young Men’s team, AEK had the upper hand and showed it even in the most difficult moments. In the final against ASEA Kavala, it became a big favorite from the moment, when the 3rd favorite of the competition did not line up the best trio.

In the opening match, Aivatidis overcame defender Timamopoulos in five sets and made AEK’s work easier. The third individual game was also uneventful where Gerakios also defeated Feltser with a 3-2 set and made the final 3-0.

Details of the ASEA Kavala-AEK 0-3 final:

Dionysis Timamopoulos-Iakovos Aivatidis 2-3 (12-10, 8-11, 6-11, 11-7, 8-11)

Filippos Kogkalidis-Alexandros Madesis 0-3 (2-11, 7-11, 3-11)

Alessandro Feltser-Georgos Gerakios 2-3 (4-11, 11-7, 11-8, 2-11, 6-11)

Madesis and Aivatidis were also in Derveni last year when the “Union” had won its first pan-Hellenic title in age championships. The coach Kostas Madesis also used Konstantinos Fragakis in Karditsa. In Kavala, coach Yiannis Stavrou relied a lot on Konstantinos Milikoudis, regardless of whether he was not in the final three.

AEK started its journey from the 1st group where it emerged as the winner by defeating 3-0 Faros Alexandroupolis and PKD Tavros. Today in the 8th round they eliminated Poseidonas Loutrakiou with 3-1 and in the 4th round even more difficult DAO Tavros (as they also lost 2-1).

Kavala took a difficult lead in the 3rd group when they defeated Poseidon Loutrakiou 3-2 and Proodo Voutzas Rafina 3-1. On Saturday, at the bottom of the table, they beat Faros Alexandroupolis 3-1 in the quarter-finals and Phoinikas Agia Sofias also 3-1 in the semi-finals.

DAO Tavrou and Phoenix Agia Sophia Piraeus won the bronze medal. Giorgos Kosmas, Iraklis Kerasidis, Petros Liotsis competed in DAOT under the technical guidance of Alexis Arseniadis and Konstantinos Kostopoulos. The Piraeus team was formed by Yiannis Malamoudis, Kostas Fakaros and Zhang Pengyu, coached by Dimitris Papadimitriou.

8 clubs participated in the women’s team. They were divided into two groups and as of yesterday, Friday 23/02, the medal groups had emerged. Today’s (24/02) finale was exciting, possibly unpredictable based on how the final played out. GAO Piraeus had defeated HAN Thessaloniki in the first phase and in the match for the gold medal took a 2-0 lead with a great victory of Kazakou over the international junior Tzaridou. Immediately after that he arrived one set away from the trophy and that’s when everything changed.

The girl Tzenidis, who again helped XANTH to the maximum, reduced to 1-2 by defeating Kreanga with 3-2 sets. Afterwards, Tzaridou defeated GAOP’s first player, Meramvelliotakis, with an impressive 3-0 and the match was decided in doubles. The Piraeus club again went one set away from the trophy, but HANTH with Georgia Yagou as the 4th in the lineup and Tzenidis reached the upset and the final 3-2. Kazakou/Creanga were 2-1 ahead in sets and 6-3 in points in the 4th set.

In detail the development of the final HAN Thessaloniki-GAO Piraeus 3-2:

Stella Tzaridou-Zoi Kazakou 0-3 (9-11, 10-12, 5-11)

Theodora Yagou-Evangelia Meramvelliotaki 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11)

Christina Tzenidis-Maria-Ioanna Kreanga 3-2 (11-9, 5-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-6)

Tzaridou Meramvelliotakis 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7)

Georgia Yagou/Zenidis-Kazaku/Creanga 3-2 (8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-3)

The coach of XANTH, Lefteris Tsokanos, celebrated with the aforementioned 4-team another Panhellenic title. GAOP had Giorgos Christoforakis on the bench.

The finalists had originally met in Group 1. GAOP had dominated there by defeating HAN Thessaloniki, Ethnikos Alexandroupolis and Phoenikes Glyfada Patras with 3-1. The Thessaloniki team beat Ethnikos 3-1 and Phoenix Glyfada Patras 3-2 to qualify as 2nd in the semi-finals

In the semi-finals, HANTH very difficultly overcame the obstacle of the 2nd favorite, PKD Tavros with 3-1, while in the upper part of the mini table GAOP eliminated OA Chania with 3-0. Alcistis Kasimi, Mavra Kontopoulou, Angeliki Efmorfiadi and Chrysavgi Tsilopoulou competed for PKDT under the guidance of the club’s coach Michalis Tsahakis. The OA Chania team consisted of Vasiliki Boulas, Stella Mavromataki and Angela Noure. In the instructions were Michalis Angelidis and Roula Lambrinidis.