Turkey continues festivities with mixed team gold

The youth team of Turkey have won their first ever European mixed team title. It says all about the ambition of Turkey to become a major player in Europe. Last week a senior title was celebrated but this may be even more important to showcase that both men and women can win a mixed team title together. It was an astonishing week for Turkey anyway with five medals in the individual tournament including two titles.

It wasn’t a surprise that we could expect Turkey again on the podium. Last year the bronze medal was caught and actually it was the same podium as last year with different positions for everyone.

Last year’s final was between Russia and the Netherlands, that both won a bronze medal on Sunday. The final of this edition in Warsaw was between the bronze medallists of 2018 Turkey and Romania. With four medals also Romania showed to have a good future. The Romanians defeated The Netherlands in the semi final and Turkey bested Russia in the semis. France lost its first round match against Italy and the successful Italians were surprised by Turkey.

Georgia that won three consecutive cadet team titles for men (2015, 2016, 2017) was defeated by the mixed team of Russia by 4-0.

Turkey dominated the final though with clear figures and Muhammed Demirel, Ayten Yeksan, Musa Simsek and Hilal Ozturk scored the 4-0 against the Romanian talents. No need for Romania’s talents Alex Cret and Iasmina Covaciu to fight any further. The title was for Turkey, managed by President Sezer Huysuz who continued the festivities, but this time in Warsaw.

For the bronze medal Russia defeated Hungary by 4-1 and the Netherlands also won a second consecutive medal after a tight victory over Georgia. The first three Georgian men all won their contest, but the Dutch women continuously made the equalizer. After 3-3 bronze medallist Yael van Heemst had to fight for a second time and confirmed her status as world number one on the World Ranking and captured the bronze for her country after a tough match of five minutes.

The next Cadet European Championships will be held in Latvia that celebrated a silver medal at this championship but have a lot more potential then ever before.