04/04/2008 - “I can’t believe this is real, I don’t know yet if this is a dream or not – Elizabeta SAMARA speaks in a moved voice - I didn’t expect this success, cause I’m very young and I had to play against very experienced players”.
The unexpected result of the stage one at the Olympic Qualifications in Nantes was the win of the 19-years-old girl of Romania. The young talented player took her place in Beijing Olympic Games with a four set to two final win over TAN MONFARDINI Wenling of Italy: “The last match was the most difficult cause I knew it was decisive – says SAMARA - I was nervous. A few points before the end I felt my legs were trembling and I kept telling into my mind: Come on….come on…and finally I did it”.
The Romanian will now relax for a few days and after that “I’ll start to train very hard for Beijing – she says - with a big pleasure”.
European players are fighting hard in Nantes to get the available spots for Beijing. Today beyond Elizabeta SAMARA seven of them realized the dream securing their ticket to Beijing: Viktoria PAVLOVICH (Belarus), LI Jie (Nederlands), HU Melek (Turkey), Jens LUNDQVIST (Sweden), TAN Rui Wu (Croatia), Bojan TOKIC (SVN) and Robert GARDOS (AUT) won and got the qualification for the Olympic Games.
The spectators of the Nantes Beaulieu Sports Hall were a little upset of the defeat of the five players of France: Christophe LEGOUT and Damien ELOI lost the semi-finals against Robert GARDOS (Austria) and Jens LUNDQVIST (Sweden). Patrick CHILA, in the men’s event, and Carole GRUNDISCH and XIAN Yi Fang, in the women’s, lost the quarter-finals. They all will play again tomorrow when eight groups of 7 athletes (4 groups in the men’s event and 4 in the women’s) will compete in direct K.O. system. Each winner will award a place for the Olympic Games (4 men and 4 women).
The last six qualified athletes (3 men and 3 women) and the needed substitutes will be chosen on Sunday with 2 groups of 24 athletes (men and women) playing in direct K.O. system.
Articol publicat pe pagina oficiala a Uniunii Europene de Tenis de Masa, www.ettu.org.