2014

Slovenian International Table Tennis Open – Factor 40

Lasko, Slovenia 6-11 May 2014

307 players from 36 countries assembled in Lasko, Slovenia for this world standard competition. Romania was represented by Gabita Constantin, Dacian Makszin, Florentina Hriscu and Petru Ifrosa. In fact, it was a very good preparation for the World Championships in Beiijing in October where Romania has two qualified – Dacian Makszin and Gabita Constanta and recently another player was accepted with a wild card – Bobi Simion. The singles began on the morning of the 7^th. Dacian was placed in a group with Schmidberger from Germany number 1 in the world where he lost though it was a very close match and Santinelli from Italy whom he beat 3-0. Moving on to the quarter finals Dacian was drawn against Florian Merrien number 2 in the world where he lost winning 5^th place overall in his class. Schmidberger and Merrien went on to win gold and silver respectively in class 3. Gabita lost to Russia in her first match, beat Simone from Brazil in her 2^nd match and then lost 2-3, the last set being 12-14 against Anne Barneoud from France, finishing 5^th overall in her class. Florentina though playing very well, lost all her three matches as did Petru. On the 8 May the team event began: Dacian played with Miguel Rodrigues-Martinez from Spain and in their first two matches beat Russia and Italy respectively entering the quarter finals where they played against a combined team of Slovenia and Belgium winning 3-0. In the final they met the German team ranked number 1 and three respectively in the world where they lost after a hard battle.

Gabita partnered Giselle Munoz from Argentina and beat Egypt 3-1 in their first match and also a combined team of Great Britain and Germany in their second match and finally faced the Russian team in the final. Florentina partnered a Polish player and lost against Russia and then the German team both who went on to win silver and gold respectively. Petru played with a player from Belgium and lost all three matches.

Finally the Romanian team achieved 2 silver medals – Dacian and Gabita in the team event and both won 5^th place at the single event. This was an excellent result for such a high standard competition.

Slovakian International Table Tennis Open
– Factor 40. Bratislava 13-18 May 2014

278 players from 36 countries including China, the best team in the world, took part in this International Factor 40 competition. Four table tennis players represented Romania: Gabita Constantin, Dacian Makszin, Florentina Hriscu si Petru Ifrosa. In fact, it was a very good preparation for the World Championships in Beiijing in October where Dacian Makszin and Gabita Constanta are both qualified. The single matches began on the 14 May and Dacian easily qualified for the last 14 in his group but then met Zhao Ping from China and lost. Gabita finished 6^th overall in her class.

On the 15^th May the Team matches began and Dacian once again had as his partner Miguel Rodrigues-Martinez from Spain. The first two matches they won winning their group as they did also against Japan/Kuwait in quarter finals and Austria in the semi finals. They met the number 1 world team in the final, China and lost winning again a silver medal. Gabita formed a team with Anne Barneoud from France, winning against both Egypt and Argentina/Slovakia and taking the silver medal. Florentina finished fifth with her combined team of Brazil/Latvia/Romania. Finally Romania won two silver medals in the highest level competition of the year before the World Championships in September.

World Championships of Table Tennis 2014

Beijing, China. 8-11 September 2014

314 (197 male and 117 female) of the best players representing 48 countries participated in the 2014 World Table Tennis Championships in Beijing held at the China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities. Romania was represented by Gabriela Constantin, Dacian Makszin and Bobi Simion accompanied by the national trainer Anca Chereches.

On 8th September the competition began and Dacian lost both games in his group against German Thomas Schmidberger and Chinese Zhai Xiang. Bobi lost to the Spanish player Alvaro Valera (Spain) but finished 2nd in his group of three winning against the young Croatian player Jozic Pavao 3-2. He then played against Chen Chao from China losing 0-3.

Gabita played first against Anne Barneoud (France) losing 0-3 but then met Sherri Umscheid from USA where she won easily 3-0. Her next match was against Giselle Munoz (Argentina) number 6 in the world where she won 3-1 playing extraordinally. Unfortunately because Giselle had already beaten Anne this meant that Gabita finished 3rd in her group and lost the chance to win a medal at her first World Championships. However, this has been a wonderful year for her – she finished now in 5th place at the World Championships and 5th place at the European Championships in October 2013. Congratulations to Gabita and the Romanian Team !