As the European Games start in Krakow 15 Medals and One Olympic Qualification Spot up for Grabs

June 22, 2023
8:57 am
European Games

The Table Tennis tournament at the 2023 European Games will take place at the Hutnik Arena in Krakow starting on Friday. The Men’s and Women’s Singles Events in the preliminary round will mark the beginning of the eight-day battle for titles in five events including Singles Men’s and Women’s Team Events and Mixed Doubles. The winner of the Mixed Doubles event will qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The top seed in the Men’s category is Germany’s QIU Dang. QIU did not compete in Minsk four years ago but has since made significant progress. In 2020 he won the gold medal in Mixed Doubles at the European Championships in Warsaw. A year later at the European Teams Championships in Cluj he was part of the German team that secured the gold medal. Last year in Munich he became the singles champion at the European Championships. In the same year in Chengdu he was a member of the silver-winning team at the World Championships.

Swede Truls MOREGARD is the second seed. Although Truls has yet to win a medal in singles at the European Championships he has a silver medal from the World Championships in Houston 2021 and a bronze medal in the Team Event from Halmstad 2018. Truls also won two bronze medals at the European Team Events in Nantes 2019 and Cluj 2021.

Dimitrij OVTCHAROV the winner of the singles event at the European Games in 2015 Baku and the teams event in 2019 Minsk is the third seed. His impressive record includes six medals at the Olympic Games: two silver medals in the Team Events in 2008 Beijing and 2020 Tokyo and four bronze medals in 2012 London (singles and teams) 2016 Rio de Janeiro (teams) and 2020 Tokyo (singles). Ovtcharov has also clinched four silver medals at the World Team Championships from 2010 to 2018 and a bronze medal in doubles in Durban 2023. At the European Championships he has won 10 gold medals including singles victories in Schwechat 2013 and Ekaterinburg 2015 and team gold medals in Belgrade 2007 St. Petersburg 2008 Stuttgart 2009 Ostrava 2010 Sopot 2011 Schwechat 2013 Luxembourg 2017 and Nantes 2019. Additionally he has three silver medals and two bronze medals to his name. Ovtcharov lost to Jonathan GROTH in the Round of 16 in Minsk four years ago.

The top 16 players who will start the competition from Round 3 are Darko JORGIC of Slovenia Alexis LEBRUN of France Kristian KARLSSON of Sweden Andrej GACINA of Croatia Felix LEBRUN of France Liam PITCHFORD of England Tomislav PUCAR of Croatia Joao GERALDO of Portugal Alvaro ROBLES of Spain Jonathan GROTH of Denmark Robert GARDOS of Austria Anders LIND of Denmark WANG Yang of Slovakia.

There are 49 players in the Men’s Singles event. The winner of the previous edition Timo BOLL will not participate in singles. However silver medalist Jonathan GROTH of Denmark and bronze medalist Tomislav PUCAR of Croatia are listed at positions 13 and 10 respectively.

In the Men’s Team event Germany represented by BOLL Patrick FRANZISKA Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and QIU Dang is the top seed. Sweden with KARLSSON MOREGARD Simon BERGLUND and Anton KALLBERG follows as the second seed and France with the FELIX brothers Simon GAUZY and Can AKKUZU is the third seed.

HAN Ying the silver medalist in Singles in the previous edition in Minsk and a member of the gold-winning German team in both previous editions of the European Games is the leading name in the singles event. HAN was also a member of the silver medal-winning team at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 and won a bronze medal in the Team event at the World Championships last year in Chengdu. HAN has four gold medals at the European Championships three in teams and one in mixed doubles events. In singles she has a bronze medal from 2013 in Schwechat.

The second seed is Austria’s Sofia POLCANOVA. POLCANOVA won gold in singles and doubles last year at the Munich European Championships and a bronze medal in Mixed Doubles in the same Championships.

Germany’s Nina MITTELHAM is the third seed. She also played as a member of the German team in Minsk. At the European Championships Nina has three gold medals: first place in doubles in 2018 in Alicante first place in mixed doubles in Warsaw 2020 and first place in the German team event in Cluj 2021. Last year in singles Nina won a silver medal.

The previous edition of the European Games concluded with the victory of Portugal’s YU Fu who is the seventh seed. HAN finished second and Luxembourg’s NI Xia Lian finished third. NI is the 11th seed in Krakow.

The top 16 seeds are: Han POLCANOVA MITTELHAM YANG XIAOXIN of Monaco YUAN Jia Nan of France Bernadette SZOCS of Romania YU Fu Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania Barbora BALAZOVA of Slovakia SHAO Jieni of Portugal Hana MATELOVA of Czechia Ni Xia Lian Linda BERGSTROM of Sweden Natalia BAJOR of Poland Tatiana KUKULKOVA of Slovakia and Margaryta PESOTSKA of Ukraine.

In the Team event Germany with Han Shan XIAOUNA Sabine WINTER and MITTELHAM is defending the title. Romania who finished second in Minsk is the second seed in Krakow. The team is composed of Adina DIACONU Andreea DRAGOMAN SAMARA and SZOCS. France with Audrey ZARIF Camille LUTZ Prithika PAVADE and YUAN Jia Nan is the third seed.