France and Romania start as the top seeds in the respective Boys’ and Girls’ Team events at the Hungarian Junior Open, the second ITTF World Junior Circuit tournament of 2008, which commences in Kecskemet on Thursday 14th February.

The French field an impressive boys’ quartet comprising Victorian Le Guen, Paul Lavergne, Thomas Le Breton and Antoine Hachard, whilst for Romania, the traditions of excellence in female table tennis are maintained.

Andreea Dospina, Cristina Hirici, Camelia Postoaca and Bernadette Szocs complete the line up.

Strong Opposition
However, both countries face strong opposition and in the Boys’ Team event it is the host nation that carries the greatest threat.

Daniel Kosiba, Peter Sebestyen, Daniel Schaffer and Martin Palatinus complete the line up for Hungary in the Boys’ Team event and occupy the second seeded position with the Czech Republic seeded three and Serbia seeded four.

In Form
Michel Zatrepalek, Pavel Sirucek, Frantisek Obeslo plus the in form Thomas Tregler, the winner of the recent Europe Junior Top Ten tournament, represent the Czech Republic with Bojan Crepula, Lorencio Lupulesku and Marko Petkov on duty for Serbia.

Threat
Meanwhile in the Girls’ Team event, it is France who pose the major threat to Romanian gold with Lorine Brunet Aurore Dessaint, Laura Perocheau and Laura Gasnier in the fold.

They are seeded two with Serbia and Slovenia occupying the third and fourth seeded places.

Maija Galonja, Monika Molnar and Andrea Todorovic line up for Serbia, whilst the Slovenian team comprises Barbora Balazova, Andrea Daubernova and Simona Lazarcukova.

Finals
The final of the Team events will be played on Friday 15th February with the finals of the individual events being completed on Sunday 17th February 2008.

Articol publicat de Ian Marshall (ITTF Publications Editor) pe pagina oficiala a ITTF.