A historic achievement for Moldovan table tennis. Vladislav Ursu has qualified for the Olympics!

A historic achievement for Moldovan table tennis! Vladislav Ursu has become the first player in the sport to represent our country at the Olympic Games. The 23-year-old won the Olympic qualifying tournament in Sarajevo and earned the right to compete in Paris.

Ursu began with a 2:4 defeat to Spain's Álvaro Robles. On the second day of play he beat Greece's Ioannis Sgouropoulos 4:1 and Czechia's Lubomir Jancarik 4:2, and lost 1:4 to the naturalised Slovak Yan Wang. Then came three brilliant wins that opened the road to the Olympics. First Vladislav swept aside Slovakia's Lubomir Pistej 4:0, and then, in a match of extraordinary drama, took his revenge on Robles 4:3. In that contest his opponent led 3:1, but the Moldovan turned the match around and took the last three sets.

In the match for the Olympic place Vladislav, riding the momentum, simply swept Hungary's Adam Szudi aside, winning 4:0 without dropping a set.

Before this, the closest a Moldovan table tennis player had come to an Olympic place was the current national team head coach and secretary general of the federation, Elena Mocrousova, who lost the final of the qualifying tournament in 2008.

Vladislav Ursu is a pupil of the Honoured Coach of Moldova Vladimir Semipeadnîi. He is a multiple national champion. He has lately been living in Poland, where he plays for one of the local clubs, and is a medallist in the national championship there.

*Source — MOLDOVA.sports.md*

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