The European Deaf Table Tennis Championship in Loutraki was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religion and Sports.
Our country participated with nine athletes. Her account was a bronze medal and good placings of the rest.
In the U18 boys’ pairs, the Greek duo, consisting of Spyros Ilias and Kosmas Deligiannis, competing for the first time officially climbed together with the Polish team to the third step of the podium. The gold was won by the duo from Ukraine of Skvartsky-Puhachs, who prevailed with a 4-1 set of the German-Polish duo of Jenan-Jablonski.
In the girls’ pairs, the gold medal was won by Ukraine with Demkovets-Tatus, who defeated the pair of Pilypenko (Ukraine)-Matiasets (Croatia) with 4-1 sets. The Poles Zajac-Novakofksi climbed to the third place.
In the U18 mixed pairs, another triumph for the Ukrainian pair, namely Demkovets-Skvarsky, who prevailed with a 4-1 set of the Ukrainian-German pair of Pylypenko-Genan. In third place, the Poles Zayac-Novakofksi and the Ukrainian Tatus-Pukhats.
In the U18 boys’ singles, Spyros Ilias took sixth place, as he was defeated by the Ukrainian Puchachs with 4-0 sets (11-1, 11-5, 11-3, 11-1), while in the Greek “civil war” for in positions 7-8 Deligiannis defeated Provataris with 4-0 sets (11-5, 11-8, 11-3, 11-5) and took seventh place.
The gold medal was won by Poland’s Karol Jablonski, who defeated Arda Genan, a German with Turkish roots, 4-1 sets (11-8, 11-9, 7-11, 12-10, 11-4). In third place are the Ukrainian Dmytro Skvarsky and the Swedish Zakaria Kruse.
In the girls, Ukraine’s Kateryna Demkovets prevailed with an upset after losing the first set to Poland’s Yulia Zajac 4-2 (3-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-3, 11-3) to claim the gold medal . In third place are the Ukrainian Marija Pilypenko and the Croatian Jozipa Matjasets.
Our “own” 14-year-old Erieta Efthymiou did not manage to win. She competed in the first group and was defeated by the Croatian Matiasets with 3-0 sets (4-11 0-11 8-11) and by the Polish Sigintous with the same score (5-11 0-11 3-11).
In the same event in the male-female category, the men in the team took eighth place. Against strong Poland, the Greek athletes fought it out, but in the end they did not manage to get the positive result with the Poles being the ones who took the seventh place with a total score of three wins.
Fifth place was taken by the women in the team in a group that was formed and everyone competed against everyone. First place in the women’s team went to Ukraine, second to Poland and third to Hungary and Bosnia.
In the mixed pairs, Tatasopoulos and Meleti took fifth place and lost the top four to the very strong Ukrainians.
In the individual events, the presence of the Greek athletes in the men, but also in the women, was completed in the first phase. Alexandros Tatasopoulos competed in the fifth group, achieved two victories. but they were not enough to qualify him to the round of 16 of the tournament.
He defeated Czech Matus 3-0 sets (11-7 11-9 11-4) and Bosnian Kosic by the same score (3-11 5-11 12-14) in a thrilling match. However, he was defeated by the Austrian Lukas Kramer with 3-0 sets (11-5 11-7 11-7) and the Lithuanian Takinas with the same score (11-5 11-5 11-2).
With two wins and the same number of losses and 6 points, he was third in his group and failed to qualify.
Gerasimos Zafiratos competed in the first group, where he lost to the Polish Pieta with 3-0 sets (11-1 11-5 11-5), the Turkish Erdal Dogan with the same score (6-11 3-11 7- 11), the Lithuanian Narkevicius, also with a 3-0 set (2-11 2-11 7-11) and with the same score from the Slovak Keinat (11-2 11-2 11-3).
Konstantinos Zouzoulas competed in the seventh group and suffered six defeats in as many games with the same score, 3-0, to Czech Helos (11-3 11-4 11-5), Bosnian Galic (5-11 5-11 4 -11), the Swedish Hedlund (4-11 1-11 1-11), the Norwegian Anderson (11-1 11-1 11-2) and the Polish Kurowski (11-2 11-0 11-1).
All three Greek athletes who participated did not manage to pass to the next phase. Sofia Meleti in the second group was defeated 3-0 sets by Hungary’s Sezni (11-6 11-3 11-6), Romania’s Vlad (11-2 11-1 11-6) and Ukraine’s Budnik (11-2 11-1 11-6).
In the third group, Natalya Smirnova also suffered only defeats from Poland’s Diskiewicz (11-2 11-1 11-1), from Ukraine’s Demkovets (11-2 11-4 11-3), from Hungary’s Fekete (2-11 1 -11 1-11) with 3-0 sets, while with Bosnia Marjanovic she fought it, but was finally defeated with 3-1 sets (11-5 6-11 11-8 11-2).
Finally, Erieta Efthymiou, in the fourth group did not succeed against more experienced opponents than her, but she showed that she has a future in the sport. She was defeated with 3-0 sets by the French Shambo (0-11 1-11 4-11), the Ukrainian Vasilieva (11-1 11-1 11-1), the Polish Leczynska (11-2 11-2 11-2 ) and Bosnia Canic (11-0 11-1 11-5).
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