European Pre-Olympic singles tournament: Entries and system of conduct

Less than 10 days left until the start of the Pre-Olympic European table tennis singles tournament. Held in Sarajevo from 15 to 19/05, it gives five qualifiers to the Olympic Games for men and women and keeps many strong names of the old continent in constant vigilance and suspense. Of course, Greece also faces the great challenge of some Olympic qualification and from tomorrow, Easter Tuesday, at the Stadium of Peace and Friendship, it is putting its preparations in the final stretch for the best possible representation in the capital of Bosnia/Herzegovina. Panagiotis Gionis, Yiannis Sgouropoulos, Katerina Toliou and Elisabeth Terpou will compete there under the guidance of the federal coaches Costas Vatsaklis (men) and Giorgos Karytsa (women). Venue is the Sport Arena at Hotel Hills Complex. In anticipation of the very important event, we are reporting information and the now final system of conduct, since entries have closed:

In the European Olympic Singles Qualification Tournament, up to two athletes and two athletes from each National Olympic Committee can enter, since this is the maximum number of participation for each country in the Olympic singles tournament.

47 men and 44 women are going to compete in Sarajevo. In both categories, 26 countries have declared a representative (although of course they are not the same).

The European Sports Union (ETTU) highlights on the games website that of the quotas for the six continents on the road to Paris 2024 there are six places for Europe. Five will be awarded from the Olympic Singles Qualification Tournament and one from the world ranking of 11^her June 2024.

Top powers of the field are not competing in the Pre-Olympics because they have already qualified for the team and therefore have secured both places in the singles. Germany, Sweden and of course the host France have qualified in the men’s and women’s team and other strong countries have the corresponding ticket in one category, such as Portugal and Slovenia in the men, Romania and Poland in the women.

Russian or Belarusian passport holders are also absent. They had the right to register for Sarajevo individually as neutral athletes, but no such declaration was recorded.

The day before the start of the tournament, on Tuesday 14/05, the draw of the games will take place. The seeding they will come out based on that day’s world ranking.

All matches of the Pre-Olympic will be played on a best of seven (7) sets system, therefore they can go up to a score of 4-3.

The matches will be divided into three stages. We had also mentioned in a previous text the way it was conducted, just then the ETTU had scored four versions depending on the number of entries. Now the numbers are finalized and the system will be as follows:

Stage 1: With 12 groups (for men one will have 3 athletes, for women 8 will be of 4^of and the 4 of the 3^of). The matches will take place on the two days of 15 and 16/05. The first two athletes from each group will qualify to stage 2 (24 athletes).

Stage 2: Single knockout board. The first two will qualify for the Olympic Games (the final will not be played). The matches will be held on 17 and 18/05.

Stage 3: Knockout board with the remaining 22 men and women who did not qualify for Paris from stage 2. In the Olympic singles tournaments, the top two on the board qualify, as does the winner from match for places 3-4 of stage 3, which will follow between the losers of the semi-finals. The matches here will be held on 18 and 19/05.

THE FINALE FOR TOLIU IN FRANCE AND SPAIN

Toliou, meanwhile, is another member of our national teams, who competed in major foreign championships and completed this year’s games. The all-time leading Greek woman in the world ranking was at 2 all season long^the professional league of France (Pro B) with Rennes CPB and since January he also participated in the Super division of Spain with the shirt of Hujase Jaen Paraiso.

The championship in Spain ended yesterday 05/05 with Toliou not going to the draw 3-3 on 22^her competition with Leka Enea. The four-time champion of Greece in women’s singles had an individual record of 7 wins and 4 losses and in her last appearance, in the match against Tramundana Figueres, 1 win and 1 loss. Her team was reduced to 11^the position with 8 points and is demoted.

In France’s Pro B, Rennes CPB bowed out last Friday at 14^the and last matchday with 3-2 at home from Lirs. From the 1st position of the team, Toliou had a very positive finale, defeating the French Lina Hosar and the Slovenian (her teammate in the Greek A1 and Panathinaikos) Ana Tofad with 3-1 sets. She also had a positive sign in her personal statistics from France with 9 wins and 8 losses. Her team, however, fell down here as well, as it stayed in 8th place^the and last place with 17 points.