Europe’s under-15 and under-19 table tennis stars and overall top sportsmen and women from more than 40 countries will showcase their passion and skills until 21/7 at the European Table Tennis Youth Championships 2024 in Malmö, others for to reach the medals, others to show their own dynamics.
Among the approximately 550 participants is the Greek delegation, which arrived on Thursday in the Swedish city, via Copenhagen, optimistic that it will produce talent and strong claims. It consists of nine boys, six girls and four coaches.
Greece’s premiere in the top competition includes eight team meetings. Two in each age category, with first opponents Bosnia for teenagers, Israel for juniors, France for boys and Wales for girls.
The country is represented by the teenagers Alexandros Madesis, Stathis Manolopoulos, Yiannis Koutras, Dimitris Sotiropoulos, the teenagers Evangelia Meramvelliotaki, Zoe Kazakou, Angeliki Eumorfiadis, the children Kostas Fakaros, Yiannis Kioseloglou, Konstantinos Alexoudis s, Theofanis Mitkas and the girls Christina Tzenidis and Anna-Fanouria Mitkas.
EFOEPA appointed Kostas Madesis (teenagers), Giorgos Christoforakis (teenagers), Christos Tsarsitalidis (boys) and Lefteris Tsokanos (girls) as responsible coaches.
On Thursday afternoon, the last training session took place in the vast “Baltiska Hallen & Malmo Isstadion”. 24 tables are set up there, and there is also a large training room.
The group stage, which opens the program, is usually the big goal for the Greek side. The main challenge for the children’s national team is to stay in the A’ division, to which it was promoted last year in Gliwice, Poland. Her task is extremely difficult, directly, in fact, she meets two of the first five favorites in the category in the group.
The rest of our national groups participate in the B category. The teenagers have presented as a goal the promotion to the A’ category, the boys and girls want to stay as long as possible in the promotion and, if they reach the final stage, to play everything for everything. Clearly, their own effort is also very difficult.
We will know the outcome on the 16th of the month and the following day the individual competitions begin, where our internationals will seek good placements.
41 countries will be present in the junior team. Greece is in the tenth group, the last of the competition, led by Norway and also rivals Bosnia and Malta.
In the junior team there are 36 teams divided into eight groups. Greece is in seventh and faces Slovenia (leader), Switzerland, Israel and Scotland.
In the children’s team, the entries reached 38. Greece competes in the first group against Poland (first favorite), France and Germany.
There are 33 countries in the girls team. Our representative group went into the sixth group with opponents Croatia (leader), Lithuania and Wales.
THE PROGRAM OF THE MATCHES OF GREECE IN THE GROUPS
The schedule for the matches of our National teams in the groups of the European Championship in Greek time (one hour ahead of Sweden):
For teenagers:
On Friday 12/07:
Greece-Bosnia/Herzegovina at 12:10
Greece-Malta at 18:30
On Saturday 13/07:
Norway-Greece at 14:20 Table 3 (broadcast)
In young women:
On Friday 12/07:
Israel-Greece at 10:00
Switzerland-Greece at 20:40
On Saturday 13/07:
Greece-Scotland at 12:10
Slovenia-Greece at 18:30
To the kids:
On Friday 12/07:
France-Greece at 12:10
Germany-Greece at 18:30
On Saturday 13/07:
Poland-Greece at 12:10
To the girls:
On Friday 12/07:
Greece-Wales at 10:00
Croatia-Greece at 20:40
On Saturday 13/07:
Greece-Lithuania at 16:30
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