Chisinau's Franzeluta leads the Moldovan team table tennis championship
On Saturday 21 December the Moldovan table tennis calendar had the second round of the 24th national team championship, and it was duly played. The heroes of the second round were the nine-times champions of the country, the players of the capital's Franzeluta side, which is also fairly called Vladimir Semipeadnîi's team.
The vastly experienced Franzeluta (Vladimir Semipeadnîi, Andrei Puțuntica, Vladislav Ursu, Eugen Koșciug, Vlad Harea, Vlada Caraulinaia) did not lose a single tie in this round, which speaks to their strong chances of taking a tenth title. We remind readers that last year Franzeluta finished the championship third.
This 24th national team championship, contested this time by eight clubs, began on 9 November in Chisinau at the sports complex of the Moldovan State University on Mica Malina (Testemițeanu 6). In that first round the best were the players of another capital side — Topspin USM, run by Natalia Smirnova. Last year this strong team took the championship's silver medals.
In the first round Topspin USM (Victor Câsa, Danu Sofroni, Afanasii Mutcoglo, Veniamin Dubrovin) won all of their ties fairly comfortably. Only the tie against the experienced fighters of the Chisinau side Angromix (Alexandru Policiuc, Denis Țerna, Danila Titov, Vadim Piliponcic, Maxim Ungurean, Mihai Ghinda) proved difficult. Alexandru Policiuc's Angromix put up no small resistance, losing a hard-fought tie 3:4. At the start of the championship Vladimir Semipeadnîi's squad played without its leaders Puțuntica and Ursu, and lost only to the leaders of the first round, Natalia Smirnova's team. Third after the first round were the players of Angromix.
The second round. Here, as we can see, Franzeluta had one of its leaders available — Moldova's first racket Andrei Puțuntica — and he made a considerable contribution to the success of this vastly experienced team. In this round Semipeadnîi's squad took five easy wins by 4:0 and one tie 4:1. The tie against Angromix was harder, and Franzeluta came through it 4:3 after a stubborn fight. As is known, team ties are played to four winning points.
Franzeluta began easily. They led that difficult tie confidently at 3:1, but let their opponents level it at 3:3. The last to play were Andrei Puțuntica and Vadim Piliponcic. Puțuntica's class told, and by beating his rival 3:0 he brought his team the fourth winning point. So, with the maximum number of points after this second round — 14 — Franzeluta became one of the main contenders for the championship.
Their rivals are no faint hearts either. Alexandru Policiuc's Angromix also shone in the second round, losing only one tie, to Semipeadnîi's squad. The many-times champion of Moldova Denis Țerna was impressive, not losing a single match that day. Danila Titov and Vadim Piliponcic worked hard and brought in points. In this round Topspin USM stumbled twice — against Franzeluta and against Angromix. One believes that Natalia Smirnova's Topspin USM, whose line-up is experienced and strong, will show all its skill and craft in the decisive third round and finish this championship as well as it can. Next in the table are the players of SMART CREDIT, who were fifth in last year's championship. In the first and second rounds SMART CREDIT (Cozmolici Felix, Daniel Coșcodan, Dionis Lipcan, Cezar Cozmolici) finished fourth. It seems these young and talented players, gathered into so capable a team by Sergiu Cozmolici, are quite able to better last year's showing.
The young players of the capital's Sports School No. 8 also deserve praise; Natalia Smirnova's young charges are gathering the match experience they need there. We mean Camelia Merenco, Andrei Slobodean, Gabriel Spivacenco, Sergiu Șchepu and the experienced tournament fighter Mihai Adam. The players of Sports School No. 8 posted the fifth result in the first and second rounds. The veterans of Studebekker (Chisinau) are performing steadily in this 24th championship and hold sixth place firmly. Playing for them are Studebekker's inspiration and leader Eduard Gorenștein and his accomplished colleagues Alexandru Iavorschi, Sergiu Nedelcu and two Igors — Pascal and Bobeico.
In the lower part of the table are two teams — Energy Fitness (Chisinau) and a regular entrant in the national championships, Adversar from Hîncești. Energy Fitness have entered experienced players such as Sergiu Lebediuc, Anatolie Gabuja, Cristian Bambuleac and Liutenco. Playing for the Hîncești side are the charges of their playing coach Sergiu Braguța — Ion Dubceac, Igor Bektaș and Victor Coroban — who are also producing interesting table tennis.
Now all attention will be on the decisive third round, which will be played in the same arena closer to the New Year — on 28 December. We wish the leading teams and their pursuers a good preparation for the deciding battles, and hope they show all their skill and finish this team championship in style. A little earlier, on 25 December, our table tennis has another event on the calendar — the Moldova Cup. These demanding individual competitions will be held in Moldova's northern capital, Bălți.
Ivan Capsamun
Photo: Sergiu Barancean