Hadjillegeroudis, Stojanovska winners in Open category at the Ninth International Ping Pong Festival of Florina

Florina, like the local ASEA Saris, who created and established the city’s table tennis festival, may be deeply pleased that, for another year, they encountered a significant response from Greece and abroad and at the same time covered hosting and hosting.

The event was completed on Sunday with the OPEN category, which provided for the small financial incentive. The first was conquered by Gerasimos Hadjlygeroudis from Athens to men and Sarah Stojianovska from Northern Macedonia to women.

Hadjlygeroudis prevailed a second consecutive year, and on Saturday he had the gold medal in the 20-39-year-old category. The organizers had arranged prizes for the ranking up to 5-8 positions.

Around 150 athletes and athletes took part in the three -day individual tournament in the Florina Municipal Indoor Gym. A record was recorded and, in addition to local athletes, athletes from Serbia, Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Macedonia, Albania and of course various parts of Greece were involved.

In the Men’s category, 65 athletes competed, with five absences in relation to those in the draw. From the groups a total of 34 athletes went to the knockout. The semifinals and the final were done with the system of the best seven sets.

In the match for the gold medal they met again, such as Saturday in the 20-39-year-old category, Gerasimos Hadjlygeroudis, who was the first favorite and Manolis Alroupi (No. 4).

The match gave a spectacle and suspense, until Hadjlygeroudis scored the second victory marginally. They lost 2-1 and 3-2, dominated with 4-3 sets (11-6, 8-11, 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 11-1, 12-10). It should be added that earlier the finalist from Kavala had proceeded with two successive victories. The bronze medal was won by Serb Dragan Djordjevic and Albanian Aron Cony.

In the female category of women the final entries were seven. Two groups were formed and the first two athletes from each passed directly to the medals. Here only the final was done with the system of the best of seven sets.

The champion was Sarah Stojanovska from Northern Macedonia. He gave a fascinating final with Georgia Spanou in which he dominated with a 3-2 set (11-7, 7-11, 15-13, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9). The two athletes are both athletes, on Saturday in the Under 19 category Spanu had won the gold medal and the Stojanovska bronze. They had also met in the semifinals and had defeated our international athlete from Florina 3-1. The third place in the OPEN category was taken by Anna Stojanovska from Northern Macedonia and Nestoria Chrysostomidou from Sarisses Florina.