The Athlete of the Week

Table tennis player Elena Zaharia

Steliu Lambru, 05.12.2023, 13:45

Romania won four medals at the Table Tennis World Youth Championships held in Nova Gorica, in Slovenia, namely one silver and three bronze. Elena Zaharia got the best results, winning the silver medal in the girls singles. In the first round, she defeated Slovenias Sara Tokic 4-nil; followed by a narrow 4-3 win against Japans Rin Mende in the round of last 16. In the quarterfinals, Zaharia defeated Park Gahyeon of South Korea 4-nil and in the semifinals she defeated Xu Yi of China 4-2, but lost the final to top seed Kuai Man of China, nil-4 (11-3, 13-11, 11-5, 11-5).

The other three medals won by Romania at the World Youth Championship in Slovenia came from Eduard Ionescu in the boys singles, the girls team and the boys team. In the boys singles, Eduard Ionescu made it as far as the semifinals, where he lost to Chinas Wen Ruibo 4-2. In the girls team, Romanias team made up of Elena Zaharia, Ioana Sângeorzan, Bianca Mei-Roșu and Alesia Sferlea lost in the semifinals to Japan, nil-3; while the boys team made up of Darius Movileanu, Eduard Ionescu, Andrei Istrate and Dragoș Bujor lost to China nil-3, also in the semis.

For her achievement of winning the silver medal at the table Tennis World Youth Championship, Radio Romania International is choosing Elena Zaharia as the athlete of the week. The new world vice-champion is ranked 10th in the world, with 5,770 points and climbed one place in the world ranking after winning the medal. Shin Yubin of South Korea is world no. 1, followed by the current world champion Kuai Man. (CM)