Romania wins European Table Tennis Championships

After a 12-year break, Romanias table tennis team has won a new title

Florentin Căpitănescu, 18.09.2017, 13:09

In the long absence of notable results at international level, Romanian sports seem to be finally showing signs of a comeback. This weekend the Romanian women’s table tennis team won the gold medal at the European Championships hosted by Luxembourg.

Romania’s team, made up of Eliza Samara, Daniela Dodean-Monteiro, Bernadette Szocs, Irina Ciobanu and Adina Diaconu, won the final 3-2 at the end of a dramatic showdown against Germany. Romania had a good early run, grabbing three wins in the group phase: 3-nil against the Netherlands, 3-1 against the Czech Republic, and 3-1 against the host country, Luxembourg. Then Romania eased past Portugal, 3-nil, in the quarterfinals, and brushed aside Russia in the semis, 3-nil.

The Romanians’ victory is all the more noteworthy as naturalizing Asian players, considered the best in the world in this sport, has become more than just a fashion for most European countries. Therefore this notable win is yet another confirmation of Romania’s 30-year-old tradition in table tennis. Romania also won the European Championships in 1992, 2002 and 2005, and reached the finals in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. In 2015, Romania lost to this year’s contenders Germany, so the national team this year managed to even the score.

The victory was long-expected, Romanian coach Viorel Filimon said, who in 2015 was nominated for the coach-of-the-year award. In the men’s European Championships, Romania had a poor run and finished the competition in 11th place. In the last rankings match, Romania defeated Poland 3-1.