King performs well in Euro Champs

Yolanda King performed well while representing England at the European Youth Table Tennis Championships in Kazan.

In her first team appearance against Croatia, she lost her singles 7-11, 9-11, 4-11 (from 4-4 in the third game), but gave a good account of herself against the powerful Ivana Tubikanec, England losing the match 0-3.

King was brought back to play the Czech Republic, and although powering through Katerina Tomanovska 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 with her best international performance to date to give England a 2-1 lead, the team ultimately lost 2-3.

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The 16-year-old from Hastings lost closely to Spain’s Paulo Bueno, 8-11, 11-13, 8-11 as England suffered another 0-3 defeat, and then finally against Wales she beat Megan Phillips 16-14, 11-5, 11-3 to put England into a 2-1 lead only to see her country endure the embarrassment of a 2-3 loss.

In the junior girls’ knockout singles, the former Claremont School pupil put up a good fight with Hungarian defender Szilvia Fulop before succumbing 11-7, 9-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-13, 5-11.

King then had a good run to reach the quarter-finals of the consolation singles, beating a Turk and Tomanovska for a second time, albeit on this occasion by a closer scoreline of 9-11, 11-3, 11-13, 12-10, 11-8.

The England junior no.4 was then put out 11-8, 12-14, 9-11, 7-11 by Eva Turkova (Slovakia), although King did lead 9-7 in the long second game.

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King and fellow Weald TTC (Cranbrook) member Lewis Gray also overcame Florent Lambiet and Alison Georis (Belgium) 11-1, 10-12, 11-6, 12-10 in the first round of the mixed doubles before going out to Poles Konrad Kulpa and Klaudia Kusinska 2-11, 10-12, 8-11 in the subsequent stage.

The full article will appear in Friday’s Hastings Observer.

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