Athlete of the week

Romania a couple of days ago has yet again confirmed it fully deserved the status it has earned among Europe's top-flight table tennis teams. As part of the European teams' championships held in the Swedish city of Malmo, in the men's version of the competition, Romania reached as far as the round of 16, while in the women's version of the event Romania won the silver medals, The latter's performance is a reiteration of the team's exceptional feat in Cluj-Napoca, in 2021.The Romanian table tennis team's record includes a couple of European titles, with the most recent one being won in France's Nantes, in 2019.  

In 2023 in Sweden, the Romanian line-up was made of Bernadette Szőcs, Elizabeta Samara, Andreea Dragoman and Adina Diaconu, who had no problem outclassing Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia in the group stage. In the quarterfinals, Romanian succeeded a hard-fought win against Spain, while in the semifinal the Romanian team defeated France. However, in the final, Romania lost to Germany. For the Romanian team, Bernadette Szőcs put on the best performance, winning all the games she played until the final, when he was defeated by the world's number 10 table tennis player, Ying Han. For her exceptional performance in Sweden and for her crucial contribution to the team's winning the silver medal, Bernadette Szocs was designated the Athlete of the week by Radio Romania International.

Bernadette Szőcs was born on March 5, 1995, in the central Transylvanian town of Targu-Mures. She took up table tennis at the age of 8. For Bernie, good results in the cadets and juniors' competitions were quick to appear. Bernadette won several medals in European and world championships, climbing up according to world rankings rather rapidly. In 2016, pairing up with Ovidiu Ionescu in the mixed doubles event as part of the European championships in Budapest, she came in 3rd. In 2017, at the European championships in Luxembourg, Bernadette Szocs won her first European title with the team. In 2018, in Montreux, Switzerland she won the European Top-16 tournament, an event for Europe's top-notch table tennis players. In 2019 in Nantes, France, she became a European champion in the teams' contest. In Munich, in 2022, Bernadette Szocs won the women's doubles European title, jointly with Austrian player Sofia Polcanova, who was born in the republic of Moldova, Also in Munich, Bernadette Szocs won the mixed doubles' silver medals, alongside Ovidiu Ionescu. Bernadette is 11th placed according to the as-it-stands world rankings.