In Swechat, Austria, 15 km south of Vienna, the European Table Tennis Championships will be held this year. The team competitions will last from October 4 - 7 and the singles and doubles events from October 8 - 13.
From the German point of view, the multiple European champion (6 times in singles, 16 times across all disciplines) and one of the seeded top favorites Timo Boll is missing due to flu. The hopes of the team of national coach Jörg Rosskopf now rest above all on the Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
The Swiss delegation tries to score in the team competition. With 16-year-old Céline Reust and 18-year-old Amanda Fauvel, two players are about to take part in their first European Championship. They are joined by Rahel Aschwanden (19 years old) and the team leader Rachel Moret, who will try to get back into the 2nd division.
In the men's competition, Nicola Mohler with his 26 years is the veteran of the players. Lionel Weber and Elia Schmid with their 17 years belong to the young players who could convince with their performances at the European Youth Championship. The 23 year old Nicolas Champod won his first participation via a qualification tournament.
The men's team of Samir Mulabdic is seeded at position 4 of group A. The men's coach's assessment of this: "If we play at the upper limit and very concentrated, Finland, Latvia and Luxembourg, who are ranked ahead of us, are within reach. To reach the 2nd place would be a nice progress of our young team."
According to the European rankings, Germany has the strongest team. Host Austria, however, can keep up and has a Robert Gardos (9th) and Chen Weixing (16th). Therefore, the Friday, October 4, 2013 event is likely to be very exciting. Whether Austria can use the home advantage remains to be seen.
Link to EM
Link Swiss Table Tennis Federation
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