by Simon Daish
The task was simple for Germany heading into the second day’s action: defeat Spain and qualify for the next round. However, Germany had no room for error as a defeat would give Spain enough points to move through.
Gerrit Engemann stepped up to the occasion for the German team, claiming strong results against Joan Masip (11-3, 12-10, 11-3) and Francisco Miguel Ruiz (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4) in the opening and concluding matches to help Germany to a 3-2 victory.
“It was hard to come back after the defeat against Russia… That is why my victory in the opening match was very important. However, Spain managed to recover and they took the lead. We changed the approach… We were faster and we moved better”, Gerrit Engemann.
Russia powered to a 3-0 win against Turkey to seal its place at the top of Group C following good outings from Nikita Artemenko, Artur Abusev and Lev Katsman.
Defending champion Italy progresses through to the Round of 16 in style, maintaining its 100% winning record in Group D with a 3-1 win in its final group match.
Daniele Pinto was the star player for the Italians in the match against the Slovak Republic with good performances against Stefan Peko (11-4, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9) and Markus Tonkovic (11-5, 11-7, 11-9), while Carlo Rossi’s success against Tonkovic in the opener (11-4, 11-3, 11-9) should also be noted.
England was left stunned on day two of the European Youth Championships, losing out to Poland by three matches to two but despite the disappointing result the team remains in first position and there was yet another promising display from Tom Jarvis who triumphed in both of his fixtures.
“I was tired and Poland had nothing to lose. They played risky. I was focused on every aspect of the game”, Tom Jarvis.
Claiming the runners up position in the group is France with Irvin Bertrand and Bastien Rembert beating Slovenia’s Tilen Cvetko (11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5) and Peter Hribar (11-8, 11-9, 11-9) prior to Leo De Nodrest’s triumph over Luka Norcic (11-8, 11-6, 11-6).
Group B has been comfortably won by Romania after the team registered its third consecutive 3-0 victory with a powerful showing against Serbia, while a win for Jan Valenta and a brace from Jiri Martinko proved enough to see the Czech Republic over the line against opponents Denmark.
Stag 2017 European Youth Championships: Results – Saturday 15th July
