2018 YOG: MOREGARD SGOUROPOULOS and PLETEA determined to repeat GAUZY`s achievement from 2010

Summer Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires Argentina (October 7-15th)

Table tennis events at the Third Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires Argentina will commence tomorrow October 7th by group matches in both singles Men`s and Women`s. A total of 64 players will compete divided in eight groups. Two top ranked European representatives Truls MOREGARD (Sweden No. 3 seed) and Sabina SURJAN (Serbia No. 5) will be united as Europe 1 team in the Mixed International Team event scheduled for October 12-15th

Unique medal taken by European players in first two YOG editions was one reached by France`s Simon GAUZY eight years ago in Singapore. Truls MOREGARD 2017 ITTF World Junior Championships runner-up has showed in last two years that he is able to fight against strong Asian opponents. Men`s Singles event will see two more medal-collectors from Old Continent two-time in a row European Junior champion Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS from Greece and Europe Youth Top 10 winner Cristian PLETEA from Romania.

Clear favourite in the Men`s Singles 15-year-old Tomokazu HARIMOTO (No. 1 seed) a second youngest participant in Buenos Aires commences his mission in Group A against Australia`s Benjamin GOULD tomorrow October 7^th. Austria`s Maciej KOLODZIEJZCYK (No. 17) shares Group B with No. 2 seed JHA Kanak from USA Nicolas Ignacio BURGOS from Chile and Jann Mari NAYRE from Philippines.

Two Europeans will compete in Group C Sweden`s Truls MOREGARD (No. 3) and Italy`s Matteo MUTTI (No. 15). Other two players in this group are Argentina`s Martin Fernandez BENTANCOR and North Korea`s KIM Song Gun. MOREGARD starts his YOG campaign against BETANCOR tomorrow October 7^th 16:30 CET while his next opponent in Round 2 will be MUTTI.

Russia`s Vladimir SIDORENKO is going to fight against three Asian players in Group D – LIN Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei. No. 4) Yanapong PANAGITGUN (Thailand) and CHO Daeseong (South Korea) as well as Lithuania`s Medardas STANKEVICIUS (Group E) who will face Manav Vikash THAKKAR (India No. 5) Amin AHMADIAN (Iran) and CHOONG Javen (Malaysia).

Chinese WANG Chuqin No. 6 is biggest name in Group E where he will meet Old Continent`s Bastien REMBERT (No. 11) from France and Vladislav URSU from Moldova. Fourth member of this groups is Tunisia`s Nathael Elyes HAMDOUN.

Group G and Group H are composed by two strong European players each. Group G will see Round 1 games (Sunday October 7^th) between Romania`s Cristian PLETEA (No. 9) and XU Nathan (New Zealand) and Azerbaijan`s YU Khinhang and Egypt`s Youssef ABDEL-AZIZ (No. 7). Group H commences by clashes Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS (Greece No. 8) vs. Cedric MEISSNER (Germany) and Azeez SOLANKE (Nigeria) vs. PANG Yew En Koen (Singapore).

The best ranked women`s player from Old Continent Serbia`s Sabina SURJAN (No. 5 seed) is biggest name of Group E composed also by Slovakia`s Tatiana KUKULKOVA USA`s WANG Amy and Korea`s CHOI Haeeun. Top seeded Miu HIRANO from Japan will face two European players in Group A Belarus Nadezhda BOGDANOVA and Croatia`s Andrea PAVLOVIC.

Lucie GAUTHIER from France Zdena BLASKOVA from Czech Republic and San Marino`s Chiara MORRI share Group B with No. 2 seed SUN Yingsha from China. Andreea DRAGOMAN (Romania) and NING Jing (Azerbaijan) respectively No. 13 and No 18 are placed in Group D beside Chinese Taipei`s SU Pei-Ling (No. 3 seed) and Nigeria`s Esther ORIBAMISE.

Franziska SCHREINER from Germany and Jamila LAURENTI from Italy will have big challenge against No. 4 seed Adriana DIAZ from Puerto Rico. No. 11 seed Poland`s Anna Janina WEGRZYN is second best ranked player in Group G after Brazil`s Bruna TAKAHASHI (No. 7)

No. 24 and No. 25 Mariia TAILAKOVA (Russia) and Annika LUNDSTROM (Finland) will face big challenge in Group H as other two players there are Jinnipa SAWETTABUT (Thailand No. 10) and LEE Karisa (Hong Kong No. 8).

Mixed International Team event is scheduled for October 12-15^th. Eleven European pairs will participate and among them is Europe 1 team composed by two strong players Truls MOREGARD from Sweden and Sabina SURJAN from Serbia as well as Romania`s Cristian PLETEA and Andreea DRAGOMAN.

Official YOG website: here

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