The countries taking part in the European Games Kraków-Małopolska 2023 table tennis tournament have been confirmed.
Direct qualification to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 next summer is on offer at the Hutnika Arena and hosts Poland will be joined by the top 11 ranked European teams in the current International Table Tennis Federation rankings.
That will see Germany, Romania, Portugal, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Austria, Czechia, Sweden and Ukraine compete in the women’s tournament alongside Poland.
Germany, Sweden, France, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia will also have teams competing in the men’s tournament, while Slovenia, Croatia, Great Britain, Belgium and Denmark have also qualified.
Taking place in the Hutnika Arena in Nowa Huta, the event will run from 23 June until 1 July with the winners of the mixed tournament qualifying directly for the 2024 Olympic Games.
There are five gold medals on offer in total with men’s singles and team and women’s singles and team taking place as well.
EOC Coordination Commission Chair for the European Games 2023 Hasan Arat said: “The confirmation of the line-up for the table tennis tournament at the European Games is particularly exciting with a spot at next summer’s Olympics available for the winners of the mixed doubles gold medal.
“I know that table tennis will provide plenty of excitement at the Hutnika Arena and I must thank the European Table Tennis Union for their cooperation in ensuring we host a successful tournament in Kraków-Małopolska”.
Germany will be looking for another strong performance in Poland after dominating the medals at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, winning the men’s singles and team events, the women’s team and the mixed doubles. Portugal took home the gold medal in the women’s singles.
At the 2022 European Championships, Germany’s Dang Qiu and Austria’s Sofia Polcanova were triumphant in the singles. In the doubles, the Swedes Mattias Falck and Kristan Karlssin took home the men’s gold, while the Austrian-Romanian pair of Polcanova and Bernadette Szocs won the women’s and the French duo of Emmanuiel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan were successful in the mixed event.
About the European Games
The third edition of the European Games will take place between 21 June and 2 July 2023. There will be 26 sports played during the games with 18 Olympic and eight non-Olympic sports scheduled and more than 7,000 athletes expected to take part. Kraków will be the main hub of the Games with 11 different towns and cities hosting sports in a variety of different venues.
More information can be found on the official event website here https://www.european-games.org/
