Romania ticked off a historic European Table Tennis Championship, Bernadette Szocs (29 years old) managing to bring us two silver medals, in singles and doubles, in Linz (Austria).
Bernadette Szocs
Despite these remarkable results, “Bernie” was left with the disappointment of losing the gold medal matches each time. And the context in which the two results were recorded was a special one. Specifically, in the singles final, the Romanian was defeated by her doubles partner! We are talking about Sofia Polcanova (Austria).
Then, when the pair of Szocs – Polcanova was reunited, for the doubles final, unfortunately, the two succumbed to the pair formed by Hana Matelova / Barbora Balazova (Czech Republic / Slovakia). A day after those two lost finals, Szocs spoke to Sports Net about his experience on Sunday in Linz.
What did Bernadette Szocs say?
*I’m a bit disappointed because I lost both finals, but I had a very good run. I am proud that I managed to bring two medals for Romania. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be the golden ones, but we’re moving on. I gave everything, I have nothing to regret, I try to move on, train and manage to achieve at least the results I had here in Linz.
*My friend, Sofia (no – Polcanova), was in top form, especially in singles! We both played very well, but it’s clear that it was her day, her gold… The important thing is that we gave everything, we tried, we fought until the last ball! It was not easy to enter the table after the defeat in the doubles, but I prefer to stay with the good course from the Europeans, I had good opponents, whom I had not beaten before. I am aware that, in the future, the gold medals will also come.
What did Mihaela Șteff, the coach of the women’s team, say?
*It’s hard to handle the defeat in the doubles, because we started as favorites and the expectations were to take the gold, but that’s the sport, that’s how the finals are, it’s played from start to finish. The girls were tired, it felt a little bit like that, the girls had many matches and in the end they lacked the necessary energy. The opponents were more rested and calmer, they did not reach the final stages in the singles events and had time to recover. We tried to make a change in the game, to change the tactics, we tried to find the best option for the girls, but unfortunately it was not enough.
