by Simon Daish
Victorious over Poland by a 3-0 score-line earlier in the day, Romania delivered a similar outcome in the last four as France fell to a 3-0 defeat against the hosts. Next up for the Romanian outfit in the title match is Russia, who qualified for the final thanks to a successful display from Elizabet Abraamian, Arina Slautina and Liubov Tentser against Serbia’s Reka Bezeg and Radmila Tominjak.
However, Russia experienced a very different story in the Cadet Boys’ Team semi-finals: fielding the team of Denis Izumrudov, Vladislav Makarov and Sergey Ryzhov last year’s Champions lost out to Myshaal Sabhi and Fabio Rakotoarimanana 3-1 as France progressed through to the next round where a meeting with Belgium awaits.
French table tennis fans will be delighted to hear that the country will also be involved in another final on Thursday 19th July with France extending its fantastic Junior Boys’ Team campaign in Cluj-Napoca.
Bastien Rembert was once again the star of the show for France with his brace of victories helping the team to a 3-1 semi-finals win over 2017 winners Germany. The other squad through to the final is Russia, who also benefited from a brace as Lev Katsman led his country to a narrow 3-2 triumph over hosts Romania.
The two sides set to meet in the Junior Girls’ Team final are Azerbaijan and Russia following their respective penultimate round successes against France and Romania.
Chasing its first gold medal in the category Azerbaijan picked up victories via Ning Jing and Chen Xingtai as France fell victim to a 3-1 loss while the Russian line-up of Anastasia Kolish, Mariia Tailakova and Kristina Kazantseva came through its semi-finals encounter against the host nation Romania relatively untroubled.
