Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia and Andrei Puțuntica win the national table tennis championship
The 26th individual table tennis championship of Moldova, played from 29 February to 1 March this year in Moldova's northern capital, Bălți, has named the country's new champions. In the women's championship the highest result went to the many-times champion of the republic Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia of Dubăsari, who became the country's absolute champion. Among the men victory was celebrated by a decorated player, last year's champion of Moldova Andrei Puțuntica of Chisinau. Speaking of the winners of this 26th individual national championship, we would remind our esteemed readers that Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia, a pupil of Moldova's merited coach Valeri Grosul, took her first win in the senior championships in 2014. In 2016 this strong player did even better, becoming the republic's absolute champion. And, as said at the outset, at this 26th individual championship of Moldova, which finished a few days ago, Șmîganovscaia was again awarded the high title of the country's absolute champion. Andrei Puțuntica, a pupil of Moldova's merited coach Vladimir Semipeadnîi, took his first win in the country's individual championships in 2017. Last year, in 2019, at the 25th individual championship, also held in Bălți in the hall of sports school No. 1 (Mihai Sadoveanu St.), he secured his second such win.
And now, at this 26th championship, Andrei has been awarded the title of champion of the Republic of Moldova in table tennis for a third time. Under the championship's regulations 16 women were admitted, on the national ranking of 4 January this year, and 32 men, on the ranking of 24 January. In preparation for the championship our players took part in a number of major international table tennis forums. In particular, from 28 January to 2 February in Magdeburg (Germany) they were entrants in the “2020 ITTF WORLD TOUR PLATINUM, GERMAN OPEN”. On 18 January our tamers of the nimble plastic ball played creditably in Odesa at the open international table tennis tournament called GEVO. They also tested themselves in Latvia at the “Riga City Council's Youth Cup in Table Tennis” from 14 to 16 February. The results of this individual championship always hold great interest for us, since in recent years it is from these results and those of the Moldova Cup that the national team is chosen for the world and European championships. The country's Cup was held at the end of the year, on 25 and 26 December to be exact, and also in Moldova's northern capital Bălți, which as is known is our country's second largest city after Chisinau. We recall that the winners of that recent Moldova Cup were Andrei Puțuntica and Alexandra Chiriacova, a product of the Dubăsari table tennis school.
And now in more detail about the individual championship, in which 28 men contested the high places, including the country's 2010 champion Ni Igor. In recent years this talented pupil of Mihail Polcanov has not often played in official calendar events. We recall that in 2017 he played in the national team championship and, with the capital's “Flumedfarm”, managed to become champion of the country. This remarkable player's appearance in the individual championship, after a fairly noticeable break, is a pleasant surprise for the Moldovan followers of this popular sport. Fourteen players were entered in the women's championship, and that is where our review will begin. Four groups. The two strongest from each went through to the main final, which was played as a round robin.
There were no serious surprises at the first stage. Let us name those who went on to contest the women's medals. Half of them were charges of Moldova's merited coach Oleg Șaric of Bălți: the twin sisters Natalina and Vitalina Brînza, Valeria Vieru and Victoria Mihailova. The Dubăsari players Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia and Alexandra Chiriacova. And two players representing the republic's capital, Chisinau: Vladimir Semipeadnîi's pupil Vlada Caraulinaia and Diana Gurski, a charge of the republic's merited coach Natalia Smirnova. The situation in the second group looked somewhat unexpected: Valeria Vieru came out of it as the top seed, having finished ahead of a medallist of this championship, Alexandra Chiriacova.
The matches of the women's main final were impressive. Nobody escaped defeat — not even the new champion of Moldova Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia, who lost to Vlada Caraulinaia alone, 1:3. The new champion had one more hard contest: the match against Natalina Brînza was no simple affair, but the Dubăsari player proved the stronger, 3:2. The rest of the final matches came considerably more easily to our champion. In them she took two wins by 3:0 and three by 3:1. To her singles gold Ecaterina added two more medals of the highest order — in the women's doubles and in the mixed — which allowed Valeri Grosul's charge to become absolute champion of Moldova. We would add that Ecaterina began learning the rudiments of table tennis under her first coach, her mother — the many-times champion of the republic Irina Șmîganovscaia. And all her later sporting success is bound up with the name of Valeri Grosul, who brought her to these high results.
The contest for the silver and the bronze was an interesting one. Two worthy players laid claim to those positions — last year's silver medallist of the individual championship Alexandra Chiriacova and the fourth racket of the 2019 championship of Moldova Natalina Brînza. These high-class players finished on the same number of points in the table, 12 each. On their head-to-head, 3:1, second place went to Chiriacova and third to Natalina Brînza. As we know, Alexandra Chiriacova has won senior championships before — that was in 2018. So Chiriacova repeated last year's result, while Natalina Brînza climbed a step in the table to become a bronze medallist of this championship. The championship's fourth racket Vlada Caraulinaia also had a claim on the medals, and it was she who managed to inflict a defeat on the country's new champion. This accomplished player finished with three defeats and four wins in the table. We recall that last year Vlada took fifth place. The top five of this championship was completed by Oleg Șaric's charge Valeria Vieru. There is no doubt that with each new championship this hard-working player's results will only improve. We can see it from this championship, in which Valeria Vieru was a pleasant surprise not only for her high finish but for her inspired play and enviable resolve. Natalia Smirnova's charge Diana Gurski has all the makings too; she took 6th place, as she did last year. Vitalina Brînza finished the championship seventh and Victoria Mihailova eighth.
Now to the men's championship. Eight groups were formed at the first stage. The best two from each group went into the main final. All the strongest cleared the qualifying hurdle. Let us list the main finalists. Andrei Puțuntica, Vladislav Ursu, Cozmolici Felix, Danila Titov, Victor Câsa, Vadim Piliponcic and Ni Igor, all from Chisinau. Denis Țerna and Ivan Danilov, both from Dubăsari. Igor Romanenco from Bender. The brothers Vlad and Vasile Harea and Dionis Lipcan (all from Călărași). The Ungheni players Mihai Adam, Dumitru Delion and Mihai Caminski. Igor Bektaș from Hîncești. Naturally, last year's winner of the individual championship Andrei Puțuntica and the silver medallist Vladislav Ursu were rated highly for the win. In recent years they have held their positions firmly, and nobody has yet managed to get near them. On his way to the final Andrei Puțuntica came through Dumitru Delion (coach Vasile Adam) easily, 4:0. Then he beat Victor Câsa (coach Natalia Smirnova) 4:2. In the semi-final his opponent was Ni Igor; Puțuntica proved the stronger, 4:0.
The second finalist was Vladislav Ursu. Ursu's path to the final went like this: first he beat Igor Bektaș easily, 4:0. Then he came through against his “Franzeluța” club-mate Cozmolici Felix, 4:1. In the semi-final he met the many-times champion of Moldova Denis Țerna. Beating him 4:2, Vladislav Ursu faced his club-mate Andrei Puțuntica in the final. Andrei Puțuntica did not give up a single game to his colleague and rival in this championship, beating him 4:0. Incidentally, the two also met in last year's final. Then Vladislav Ursu led 3:2 on games but still lost to Andrei 3:4. And now we see a more confident win by the republic's new champion, Andrei Puțuntica, for the second year running. As last year, the silver medallist was Vladislav Ursu.
The contest for third place was stubborn too. After beating Ni Igor 4:1, Cozmolici Felix met Denis Țerna, who had come through Victor Câsa confidently, 4:1. The match for third between Cozmolici and Țerna finished 4:2 in favour of Denis Țerna, who was also a third-place medallist at last year's individual championship. Cozmolici Felix finished the championship fourth; last year he was fifth in our championship. Victor Câsa took fifth place at this championship, and Ni Igor sixth. Seventh place went to Igor Romanenco and eighth to the many-times champion of the republic Vadim Piliponcic. Ninth was Vlad Harea, and Dumitru Delion finished tenth.
The consolation final, where the players contested places 17 to 28, also had many interesting matches. The best in this group was named as Mihai Adam, who took 17th place. Behind him in 18th is Alexandru Radu's pupil Daniel Coșcodan (Călărași), an interesting player with a style of his own. We would also note capable young players such as Vladimir Semipeadnîi's charge Cezar Cozmolici; Gabriel Spivacenco, Andrei Slobodean and Sergiu Șchepu, who train under Natalia Smirnova; V. Cobzac from Ungheni and Vitalii Sevastianov from Dubăsari.
Let us turn to the doubles. Among the men's pairs the championship title went to Denis Țerna and Vadim Piliponcic. In the final they managed to beat Andrei Puțuntica and Vladislav Ursu 3:1, who finished second in the championship. Third place went to Danila Titov and Victor Câsa. In the women's doubles the win went to Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia and Alexandra Chiriacova. In the final Șmîganovscaia and Chiriacova beat Natalina and Vitalina Brînza 3:2 after a stubborn contest; the sisters took the championship's silver. The bronze medals went to Vlada Caraulinaia and Diana Gurski. In the mixed the title was won by Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia and Denis Țerna. In the match for first place they beat Vladislav Ursu and Alexandra Chiriacova 3:1. Chiriacova and Ursu were second, and third place went to Vlada Caraulinaia and Andrei Puțuntica. In congratulating Moldova's absolute champion Ecaterina Șmîganovscaia and the country's champion Andrei Puțuntica on their splendid victories in the individual championship, we wish them new and successful starts, both at home and on the international stage.
We congratulate their mentors on this achievement too — Valeri Grosul and Vladimir Semipeadnîi, who have brought up such remarkable masters of home table tennis. Praise is due not only to the championship's winners but to their pursuers, who also impressed us with their constructive play. As always, the championship was well organised. It was run by the table tennis federation of the Republic of Moldova under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. All the championship's medallists were awarded medals, diplomas and cash prizes by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. The table tennis federation of the Republic of Moldova expresses its gratitude to the company “Vinaria Bostavan” for the prizes provided for all the championship's winners and medallists. We would add that the competition's chief referee Irina Șmîganovscaia carried out her duties professionally.
And one more piece of good news. On 3 March Andrei Puțuntica travels to Croatia by personal invitation to take part in the individual European championship for players no older than 21. At the last two such championships he took a high 5th place. Ahead lie new meetings with our players. The nearest of them is on 7 and 8 March, at the cadet Moldova Cup. The cadet Moldova Cup will be held in the village of Avdarma (Comrat district).
Ivan Capsamun