Crime in the women’s final
German table tennis team wins gold without Boll
7/3/2023 7:55 am
At the European Games, both German national table tennis teams are in the final. But while the men can celebrate without the ailing superstar Timo Boll, the women lose very narrowly.
Without Timo Boll, the German table tennis men won the gold medal at the European Games in Kraków, Poland, repeating their 2019 victory. Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Patrick Franziska and Dang Qiu beat Sweden 3-1 in the final of the team competition. The women’s selection, on the other hand, lost their final 2-3 against Romania.
After the doubles, Germany was still behind: Ovtcharov and Franziska lost 3-1 to the Swedish duo Truls Moregardh and Kristian Karlsson. But then the Germans turned up the heat. Qiu did not lose a set in the 3-0 win against Anton Kallberg, then Franziska took the lead with a 3-2 win over Karlsson. Ovtcharov made everything clear in the 3-0 win against Kallberg.
There was no comeback from record European champion Boll in Poland. The 42-year-old was back in the squad after a month-long injury break, but did not play. He also watched the quarter-finals against Belgium (3-0) and the semi-finals against Portugal (3-1) as a spectator.
Women Lose Crime
In the women’s doubles, Nina Mittelham and Xiaona Shan lost 3-2. Then world number ten Ying Han lost a 2-0 lead against Bernadette Cynt Szocs, who had won gold in singles on Tuesday, and lost 2-3.
However, both Shan and Han quickly recovered from their losses and hit back for Team Germany. Shan got revenge for the double defeat at Dragoman and won 3:2, Han showed her class and put Diaconu in her place with 3:0.
In the last single, Mittelham was asked again, but, like Han before, she had to admit defeat against Szocs. The Berlin woman’s clear 0:3 finally gave the Romanians the gold medal and a successful revenge: At the last European Games in 2019 in Minsk, the German women had won the final 3:2.