He announced that he would participate again in the Panhellenic Men-Women Championship for the first time in 21 years, but it seems that he will be forced to stay out. For Panagiotis Gionis, the reason he loses the top internal organization due to a significant international obligation. The top table tennis player was announced by the European Union of Sports (ETTU) to be next Friday in Montreux, Switzerland as the 1st alternate in the Europe Top 16 Cup. The historic annual individual tournament, which we remind you that for 2021 took place last September in Thessaloniki, will take place on the weekend of February 26-27. The Panhellenic championship will be held on the same days at the Peace and Friendship Stadium and Gionis will not catch it, because even if he does not play in the Top 16, he will return to Athens on Saturday night. It should be noted that initially he was a 9th substitute, but after cancellations of athletes he became 3rd and finally 1st at the end of last week with the obligation, as always happens, to be present in the draw on the eve of the games in case another athlete retires and to fight. He has to go to Switzerland, because he has a bonus for the ranking list from his participation in the previous tournament in Thessaloniki and he loses points if he does the opposite.
The Top 16 returns to Montreux where it was hosted for three consecutive years (2018, 2019, 2020), before being given extraordinarily and due to problems from the pandemic to EFOEPA and successfully organized the facilities of HAN Thessaloniki on the two days of September 18-19. The Salle Omnisport du Pierrier will host Europe’s top athletes and the lists of participants and substitutes emerged from the January 2022 evaluation boards. Gionis, who has significant experience from the institution and was present in Thessaloniki, was warned attends as 1st alternate and can replace an athlete from any country except Sweden and Germany.
He has been in Poland since Monday night for the rematch of his team, Bogoria with the Italian Apuania Carrara, in the semifinals of the Europe Cup. The match takes place on Wednesday 23 February with the Polish club having lost 3-0 in Italy. Gionis will return to Athens on Thursday and from here he will go to Switzerland on Friday. At the moment it is valid that he will travel alone. If in the meantime, the development occurs that he will take part in the Top 16, then he will be followed by the federal coach Costas Vatsaklis and the return to Greece will take place on Sunday. If there is no cancellation of participation then the top Greek table tennis athlete will be left out of the tournament, but returning to Athens on Saturday afternoon he will unfortunately be absent from the Panhellenic championship.
* In Poland, the preparation for the decisive semifinal of the Europe Cup clubs continues normally, but an out-of-competition issue has also been created. Bogoria had strong complaints about the attitude of the Italians in last Thursday’s match and filed an objection with the ETTU demanding the punishment of Apuania. The Polish club emphasizes that it was announced at the last minute that two athletes will not be allowed to participate without vaccinating Siruczek and the young Gavlas, in fact the opponents did not give the gym for training on the night of the match or in the morning on the day of the match. With the intervention of ETTU, his team (we remind you absent) Gioni was finally allowed to play with its trio, but the people of Apuania let the young Gavlas come in to warm up 20 minutes before the match starts and not in time!
In the games, Apuania naturally has a serious advantage with the 3-0 of the first match, but nothing is over based on the new qualification system. Bogoria aims to win 3-0 or 3-1 so that the qualification can be judged immediately after in the “goldenmatch”, ie in three extra sets with an equal number of pairs of opponents.
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