Eliza Samara (35 years old) made history after winning the Champions League for the fifth time, in table tennis, of which the last three were consecutive. The component of the national table tennis team achieved an incredible performance on Friday evening, once again capturing the trophy in the most important interclub competition.
Eliza Samara and her club team have been dominating Europe for years. ETTU's photo
His team, KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg, prevailed in the final with 3-1 (6-3 on aggregate, after the double leg), in front of the French club Etival ASRTT. It should be noted that 3 sportswomen of Asian origin and our Romanian are registered with the Polish team. “The fact that I am the first sportswoman from Romania who wins the Champions League five times makes me very proud of myself and the work I have done since I started playing table tennis at the age of five”, Eliza Samara told SportsNet.
Even though she has reached the age of 35, the athlete is already thinking about her 6th Champions League title: “I am very happy for this success, any title won is more than welcome. Hopefully the sixth trophy year will come. I want to thank everyone who supported me and supported me unconditionally, the girls in the team, the coaches, the fans, the federation and the partners”Eliza Samara said, according to SportsNet.
“There were times when I didn't know how to serve”
The final was played in a round-robin system, and in the first leg, from France, the Polish team prevailed at the limit, 3-2, to win 3-1 in the second leg. The games were balanced and with many overturns, as Eliza explains: “My match was on a knife's edge. I led, the opponent came back, then she led and at 2-2 in sets she had 3-1, then I came back from 5-3 and at 5-5 I had the serve. There were moments when I actually didn't know how to serve that decisive point for the match.” He won the deciding set 6-5 and brought a golden point to his team.
Four titles with the same team
“In those fractions of a second I was thinking to go long, to go with great effect… It was difficult, but good that it turned out the way we wanted and we won”also said Eliza Samara, who concluded: “It was a very long and difficult Champions League season. We've had a player down since January, our number 1, Han Ying, who had surgery, and we basically took this part of the competition to just three players.
We are very homogeneous and understand each other very well, both when we are in the team schedule and outside of it. I have three Asian colleagues, Han Ying, Fu Yu and Xiaoxin, but there are no language barriers, because we communicate in English”Samara also said.
“Tricolora” won the Champions League for the first time in 2015, with Fenerbahce Istanbul. Four titles followed with the same team, KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg: in 2019, in 2022, in 2023 and this year
