Silver and bronze for Andrei Puțuntica at the European Youth Table Tennis Championships
The reigning champion of Moldova, Andrei Puțuntică, played superbly at the European under-21 table tennis championship (European Under 21 CHAMPIONSHIP) that finished today in Varaždin (Croatia), taking a silver medal in the men's doubles with the Czech player Jiří Martinko and a bronze in the singles. For Andrei Puțuntică, a pupil of Moldova's merited coach Vladimir Semipeadnîi, this was already a third championship of the kind. In 2018 in Minsk (Belarus) Puțuntică took a high fifth place in the singles. Last year, in 2019, in Gondomar (Portugal), the number one of Moldovan table tennis was again a genuine contender for a European medal. But, as in Minsk, he again finished fifth.
We saw a very different Andrei at this European championship in the Croatian city of Varaždin, where from 4 to 8 March the fourth European championship for players under 22 was held. Fifty-six men and the same number of women were admitted to it individually — the best on the European ranking. Andrei Puțuntică came through both group rounds in brilliant style. And not merely came through them, but did so as the top seed. In the first qualifying group his opponents were the reigning champion of Russia, Lev Katsman, Filip Radović of Montenegro and the Slovak player Daniel Orak. First Puțuntică came through convincingly (4:0) against the Slovak Orak. Then, in fine style, Semipeadnîi's pupil dealt with the Russian champion Lev Katsman. That match finished 4:1 in favour of the Moldovan.
Puțuntică got the better of Filip Radović without much trouble too (4:0). In the second group round the opponents were stronger still. Here he had to face the strong Romanian player Rareș Șipoș, the Spaniard Joan Masip and the Swiss Lars Posk. His first opponent was the Romanian Rareș Șipoș. Andrei proved the stronger (4:1). But it was no easy passage, as the score in each game shows: 18:16, 11:8, 9:11, 11:9 and 11:6. Straight after that win Andrei gave his impressions on the front page of the European federation's site (ETTU): “We know each other very well. This year alone we have played each other five times in the German league. I beat him last time and that gave me extra confidence. I am thinking less about my opponent's game now and concentrating more on my own. I am here to win the gold.”
The matches against the Swiss Lars Posk and against Joan Masip both ended in convincing wins for Puțuntică by the same score, 4:0. Having cleared the qualifying hurdles, Andrei Puțuntică reached the draw of the 16 strongest masters of the little racket in Europe. And, it must be said, he acquitted himself very well indeed. In the first round, played yesterday, 7 March, his opponent was the accomplished Frenchman Gilles Rolland. To look ahead: Andrei won that match 4:3. The first round proved a very hard one for our player. Puțuntică led 1:0 and 2:1 on games, but the Frenchman gathered himself and even went ahead 3:2. At great cost Puțuntică took the sixth game 11:9 and levelled at 3:3. In the deciding seventh Semipeadnîi's pupil went 3:0 up, but his opponent was pressing for the win too. The game then went like this. The seventh was level at 8:8. At the close Puțuntică led 10:8, then 10:9. It seemed the Frenchman would level, but Andrei managed to force the issue and took the deciding game 11:9. His next opponent was the Belgian Florian Gudde. In that match Andrei was on song, breaking the Belgian's resistance easily, 4:1. The win took the Moldovan into the semi-finals, which guarantees a player a bronze medal at the least. He wanted more, of course. But for that he had to get past Vladimir Sidorenko of Russia (pictured below), who had knocked last year's European U21 champion Ioannis Sgouropoulos of Greece out of the running for a medal.
Andrei Puțuntică did not manage to get past Vladimir Sidorenko. Andrei lost the match for a place in the final 1:4 and took the bronze at the European championship. Our player played nine matches in the singles. He won eight and lost one, the match for a place in the final — and only to the European champion, Vladimir Sidorenko. He took a second European medal, a silver, in the men's doubles with the Czech player Jiří Martinko. In that event they reached the final. Puțuntică and Martinko played their first match against the Austrian Maciej Kołodziejczuk, well known to Moldovan connoisseurs and followers of the game, and Lovro Zovko of Croatia. The Moldovan-Czech pair won 3:0. They then came through convincingly against the French pair Bastien Rembert and Gilles Rolland, 3:1. Next was the match for a place in the semi-finals, against the German Cedric Meissner and the Hungarian Csaba András. We will say frankly that it was a nervous affair. Andrei and Jiří started poorly.
They were 0:2 down on games. But they did not give in. They turned the match around and, to our delight, managed to win that hardest of contests 3:2. The bronze was secured. But the pair wanted more, and in the semi-final they beat the Belgians Florian Gudde and Laurens Devos fairly comfortably, 3:1. Then came the final, in which our opponents were the well-known Romanian tamers of the nimble plastic ball Cristian Pletea and Rareș Șipoș. Puțuntică and Martinko began the final the better, taking the first game confidently, 11:7. The second ended by exactly the same score — but in the Romanians' favour. Pletea and Șipoș went on to take two more games by the same score, 11:9, and won the match for the championship gold, 3:1. So a silver medal at the European championship was won, and it showed that Moldova has masters whose play we are proud of. One of them is Andrei Puțuntică, who trained for many years in the table tennis section at “Franzeluța”. Whenever he comes to Moldova, Andrei always calls in at his home hall to train. So it was this time too. He came, won the individual championship of Moldova convincingly, and went off to the European championship.
Thank you to Andrei Puțuntică for his high level of execution, for the fine table tennis he showed at so serious a forum of the game as the European championship. We wish him and his coach Vladimir Semipeadnîi new sporting achievements.
Ivan Capsamun