Greece is preparing for the second Europe Youth tournament of Loutraki, which will take place 3-7/04 again at the large Sport Camp facility, just like last October. It is Open with team and individual events that have been established since last year and concern the Under 13 and Under 15 age categories.
The organizer is the Hellenic Philatelic Table Tennis Federation under the auspices of the European Union of the sport and already from the numerical data published by the ETTU the most positive element for the success of the new venture emerges.
With 68 sportsmen and women athletes from eight countries, the impact of this year’s Open abroad is significantly greater than last year, a fact that on the one hand justifies EFOEPA for its decision to request such a tournament again this year and on the other hand encourages it to strive for an overall very good picture. Important, also, that great athletes from the international scene will come!
The tournament in Loutraki Corinthia is the third in this year’s Europe Youth Series and includes three events. Team, single and mixed doubles. The matches in Croatia and Turkey preceded it. Bosnia, Serbia and the Czech Republic will follow.
In addition to the “host” country, England, Romania, Poland, Belgium, Croatia, Serbia and Cyprus will have representatives. In October 2023 only Georgia and Denmark had athletes.
In the team event, which this year will be held with separate boys and girls teams and not with mixed compositions, the final entries are 12 and six respectively for male and female athletes up to 15 years of age and seven and four respectively for male and female athletes up to 13 years of age.
Greece formed six teams in the boys, three in the women’s team, four in the women’s team and two in the women’s team.
In total, 64 children have registered for the team and we point out that each team can have two athletes in the composition (Corbion system).
In the simple U15, 43 boys and 25 girls are going to compete. In the simple U13 there are 18 pampaids and 11 pankorasids. The youngest athletes will also compete in the above category.
A total of 68 final individual declarations with two countries not present in the team: Serbia and Cyprus.
As there was a large margin up to the maximum number of entries (176), it was possible for all the children from Greece who had expressed a practical interest to compete. A total of 31. Thus, the Greek entries are expected to be 21 in the boys U15 singles, ten in the girls U15 singles, eight in the boys U13 singles and four in the girls U13.
In the boys-girls mixed doubles, 14 couples are listed, in the boys-girls mixed doubles nine, but of course many children from Greece and abroad are looking for partners.
GREAT ATHLETES FROM ABROAD IN LOUTRAKI
There are significantly more entries and therefore a higher level of competition, since countries that are traditionally strong at young ages and talents with very good positions in the autonomous ETTU evaluation tables are coming. And this element is very essential for the Greek athletes and the competitive tests that await them.
Indicative: The Belgian Maxim Degiv, number 18 in March in the European U15 ranking, the Croatian Deni Vale, No. 23, the English Kasper Pivovar, No. 38, the Polish Jan Mrugala, No. 32 in the world ranking, etc.
From the U13 boys, Alexandru Pop, number 4 in Europe this month, and also Romanian David Toro, number 7.
From the U15 girls, Poland’s Katarzyna Raykowska, who figures at number 8 in Europe in March, and Romania’s Andrea Baiasu, No. 12, Poland’s Maja Lakoma, No. 16, and Serbia’s Maja Vaio, will be present. No 18, and from U13 Lucia Kobos from Poland, who is at number 16 and Romanian Roberta Maya Madar, No 32.
Finally, all our athletes also joined teams, which after the final approval of the EFOEPA Coaches Committee are as follows:
Category K15 athletes:
Greece 1 Konstantinos Alexoudis, Kostas Fakaros
Greece 2: Anastasios Fousekis, Yiannis-Panagiotis Kioseloglou
Greece 3: Dimitris Georgallidis, Chrysovalantis Sambalis
Greece 4: Panagiotis Skoundzos, Mark-Lucas Stafford
Greece 5: Konstantinos Isaakidis, Christos Tsiotos
Greece 6: Apostolos Kossidas, Giannis-Achilleas Sarigiannis, Konstantinos Toulias
Category K15 female athletes:
Greece 1: Vasiliki Boula, Angela Noure
Greece 2: Stella Mavromataki, Georgia Spanou
Greece 3 : Despina Dimitriou, Areti Kombouri
Category K13 athletes:
Greece 1: Giorgos Sassanis, Apostolos Vatsaklis
Greece 2: Michalis Bithavas, Spyros Fousekis
Greece 3: Dimitris Alexandridis, George Kouvelas
Greece 4: Alexandros Migos, Emmanuel Pogiatzis
Category K13 female athletes:
Greece 1: Alexandra Mavridis, Aphrodite Sarikakis
Greece 2: Sophia Fili, Ioanna Kombouri
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