Last week, the European Table Tennis Championships were held in Linz, Austria. Romania was represented by 11 athletes: six girls and five boys. The most successful athlete enrolled in the competition was a Romanian, Elizabeta Samara, whose track record at European level includes 5 gold, 3 silver and six bronze medals. At this edition, however, the best results were grabbed by Bernadette Szőcs, who won two silver medals, which is why Radio Romania International has designated her Athlete of the Week.
In Linz, Bernadette Szőcs fought for the gold medal in two competitions – the women’s doubles and the women’s singles. In the doubles final, Bernadette and the Austrian player Sofia Polcanova were defeated by the Czech-Slovak couple Hana Matelova / Barbora Balazova, score 3-2. In the singles competition, the Romanian player lost to her doubles colleague, Sofia Polcanova, who prevailed 4-1.
Bernadette Szőcs was born March 5, 1995, in Târgu Mureş (central Romania). She took up sports at the age of 8. The results in cadet and junior competitions came relatively quick. Bernadette won several medals in European and world competitions, quickly climbing the international rankings. In 2016, at the European Championships in Budapest, she won bronze in the mixed doubles, alongside Ovidiu Ionescu. A year later, at the European Championships in Luxembourg, she grabbed her first European title, with the Romanian team. In 2018, in Montreux, Switzerland, she prevailed at the European Top 16 tournament, a competition reserved for the best players from Europe. A year later, in Nantes, France, she defended her European title with the Romanian team. In Munich, in 2022, she won the European title in women’s doubles, together with Sofia Polcanova, and won silver in the mixed doubles event, together with Ovidiu Ionescu. At the Olympic Games in Paris this year, in the singles competition, she was also stopped in the round of 16 by Polcanova. In the mixed doubles, she ranked 5th jointly with Ovidiu Ionescu. (VP)
