In a table tennis tournament in Doha, Qatar was the immediate previous excursion of Panagiotis Gionis and on Monday he left for Singapore, arriving at his destination in the evening of the same day, in order to take part in the Singapore Smash 2024 of the World Table Tennis held by 7 to 17/03.
This is not an Open, but a competitive meeting of sportsmen and women with high positions in the international rating table, therefore the top Greek ace will again have a very difficult task in his attempt to score victories and get new points.
He is back in the top 100 in the world, he is at number 99 and is looking for further improvement. Gionis will have the help of Kostas Vatsaklis from the bench in Singapore as well, it’s just that the national federal men’s coach will depart from Athens on Tuesday.
The Singapore Smash has all individual events, but the top defender will only compete in singles. He will be on the board of the qualifiers and his first goal is, of course, the qualification to the main board of “64”, which will secure him, at least, 20 points.
The first qualifying round at the Sports Hub in Singapore takes place next Thursday and the second begins next Friday.
Indicative of this top-level event is the fact that the top five athletes of the international ranking will also be present, the Chinese Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan, who very recently won the world title in Korea in the team. Raffles take place on the eve of the start.
We remind you that the first time criterion for qualification to Paris 2024 will be the Pre-Olympic tournament of Europe, which will be held next May in Sarajevo. Each country has the right to enter up to two athletes and up to two athletes.
Gionis will, of course, be the only Greek there, but at the same time he is seeking the points harvest because if he does not reach the qualification through the Pre-Olympics he will hope for the world ranking. That’s why in the program of March he has also put the WTT Feeder II 2024 of Lebanon, which will take place in Beirut for three days 22-24/03.
In the WTT Feeder I 2024 in Lebanon, Yannis Sgouropoulos, who claims the second Greek position for the Pre-Olympic tournament, has been declared to compete. These games will also be held in Beirut between 19-21/03.
Gionis and Toliou will definitely go to the Pre-Olympics and the second Greek man and the second Greek woman will come out of the world ranking, as long as they don’t unexpectedly get injured. In this period Gionis is followed from Greece by Konstantinos Angelakis (at number 302), Sgouropoulos (No. 347) and Giorgos Stamatouros (No. 467).
Among the women, behind Toliou are, in order, Elisavet Terpou (number 338 today in the world ranking list), Malamatenia Papadimitriou (No. 387) and Dimitra-Thomais Tsekoura (No. 402).
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