Romanian women's team captures the gold in European Table Tennis Championships

Autor: George Traicu
Publicat: 08-09-2019 17:37

Romania captured the women's team gold at the European Table Tennis Championships in Nantes (France) after defeating Portugal 3-0 in the final this Sunday.

This is Romania's fifth continental title after the wins in 1992, 2002, 2005 and 2017.

The team coached by Viorel Filimon prevailed in a minimum of matches against Portugal, thanks to the points won by Bernadette Szocs, Daniela Dodean Monteiro and Elizabeta Samara. Adina Diaconu and Irina Ciobanu were also part of the Romanian team.

Bernadette Szocs, the best Romanian player of the moment, defeated Jieni Shao in the first match by a score of 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6), making a comeback from 1-2 in the sets.

The second, and perhaps most important point was secured by Daniela Dodean (married to Portuguese fellow sportsman Joao Monteiro) who beat Portugal's most valuable player, 2019 European Games women's singles winner and European vice-champion in 2016 Yu Fu, by the score of 3-2 (7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 11-3).

In the last match, 2015 European singles champion Eliza Samara triumphed over Leila Oliveira 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-6).

At this year's European Games Romania took the silver medals after losing the final with Germany