Athlete of the week

Table-tennis player Bernadette Szocs

Florin Orban, 01.03.2022, 13:45

Last week’s attention-grabbing event was the Europa Top-16
table tennis tournament hosted by the city of Montreux in Switzerland. Each year
the event brings together Europe’s top-flight table tennis players. In 2022,
representing Romania in the women’s version of the tournament were Bernadette
Szőcs and Elizabeta Samara. Szőcs had the best run, coming in 3rd according
to the final rankings. Reason enough for Radio Romania International to
designate Bernadette Szőcs the Athlete of the week.

In Montreux, in the round of 16, Bernadette Szőcs outclassed Portugal’s Jieni
Shao, 4-2. In the quarterfinals, Bernie
won the match against Dutch opponent Britt Eerland, also 4-2. However, in the semi-finals,
Bernadette Szőcs lost the game against German challenger Ying Han, nil-4. In
the quarterfinals, Han also defeated Elizabeta Samara, 4-3. Germany’s Ying Han
eventually won the tournament, grabbing a 4-nil win against Russian challenger Polina
Mikhaylova, 4-nil.

Bernadette Szőcs was born on March 5th, 1995 la Târgu Mureş (central Transylvania).
She took up sports at the age of 8. Her results in cadets and juniors’ competitions
were quick to appear. Bernadette won several medals in European and world competitions
and saw herself in the upper part of the echelon according to world rankings rather
quickly. In 2010, when the official financial support in Romania was scarce, Bernadette
Szőcs intended to relocate to Norway and compete for that Scandinavian country
but eventually she did not succeed to carry her project through. In 2016, at
the European championship in Budapest, Bernie came in 3rd in the
mixed doubles event, jointly with Ovidiu Ionescu. In 2017, at the European
championship in Luxembourg, Bernadette Szőcs won her
first European title, with Romania’s national team. In 2019, in Nantes, Bernadette
also won the European title in the nations’ competition. Meanwhile, in Montreux,
in 2018, Bernie won the Europa Top-16 tournament. Bernadette Szőcs is 23rd-placed
according to the as-it-stands world classification. The other Romanian, Elizabeta
Samara, is 31st- placed according to the same rankings.

(EN)