Individual European Championship: ... And two wins in the end!
Despite all the assurances of Nadezhda Usenko that the final result of her performance at the European Championships in Prague is not to take a place higher than the previous one, but only to gain additional experience in the fight against the best squash shoes of the Old World, the Ukrainian still managed to climb higher compared to the 2015 championship.
RAISING THE PLAN
The only representative of Ukraine at the euroforum overcame the starting round of the 1/16 finals without any special nerves. She was able to focus on the game and not pay attention to the crazy support of the stands, which, of course, rooted for her compatriot - the representative of the Czech Republic Veronica Goltier. The opponent was beaten in three games with a rather comfortable advantage in each of them. Note that for Goltier this was her only match in the tournament - after the defeat, she withdrew from the tournament and subsequently automatically took 24th place.
But at the next stage, Nadezhda had a kind of exam - she was opposed by the fourth seeded German woman Sina Wall. It was this squash who last year was Usenko's first offender at the tournament - and also at the 1/8 final stage. Since that time, both athletes have grown in their skills, have risen in the PSA rankings. And Nadezhda could well count on revenge, especially since she had time to prepare for this rival, to study her manner of playing at various competitions. Unfortunately, she again failed to beat the German, but it is worth noting that this victory was not even harder for Vall herself. At the 2015 championship, Usenko lost in three games with practically no options, taking only 11 points from Sina in total. Now, in every game, the Ukrainian to the end claimed to win. And even the final defeat did not blur the impression of the brilliant play of our squash.
On such a rise, which after this match experienced Usenko, who had become toned, it would have been difficult for every player to cope with it. In the game for 9-16 places, the Frenchwoman Julie Rossignol felt it. In the first game it came to a tie-break, in the next two the difference in the score was also minimal. Rossignol was simply lucky at the end of each game - just a couple of accurate shots were enough. But at the same time, the Frenchwoman was so exhausted that after this victory she lost in her next match to Czech Teresa Svobodova, and then to her compatriot Zuzana Kubanova. As for Usenko, being confident in her abilities, she beat the Finnish squashwoman Riina Koskinen in one breath. This set a new bar for herself in the European Championships - at least 14th place after this meeting was guaranteed to her.
By the will of the lot, Nadezhda ended the competition for the second year in a row with a match against Jacqueline Peychard from Austria. The only difference is that in 2015 the girls contested 15th place, and now they were playing 13th. Then Peychar was beaten with ease, why couldn't this happen this time? And so it happened. True, at first I had to get nervous - the Austrian tried to take our squash with a swoop and even managed to snatch the first game for more or less. But this was the end of her luck - Usenko calmly took all the threads of the meeting into her own hands and calmly won the match. And at the same time she set a personal record for performing at the continental championship - thirteenth place.
Results of the performance of Nadezhda Usenko at the individual European championship-2016
(1/16 finals) Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine) - Veronika Goltie (Czech Republic) - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 7, 11: 5)
(1/8 finals) Sina Wall (Germany) - Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (11: 8, 11: 6, 11: 5)
(for 9-16 places) Julie Rossignol (France) - Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (16:14, 11: 8, 11: 9)
(for 13-16 places) Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine) - Riina Koskinen (Finland) - 3: 1 (11: 5, 7:11, 11: 5, 11: 5)
(for 13th place) Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine) - Jacqueline Peychar (Austria) - 3: 1 (12:14, 11: 5, 11: 6, 11: 6)
SERME BUT NOT GAULTIER
If we talk about the results of the European Championship in general, then this year was not without some surprises. Bronze medalist in 2013 and 2015 Colin Omar, who this time was considered one of the favorites, suddenly stumbled in her second match - she was defeated by Belgian Tinne Gilis in five games. Another Belgian, Nele Gilis, reached the final of the competition. It fell to her to challenge the title of the current four-time European champion Camille Serme. Actually, Nele had already exceeded her maximum task, so with a light heart she could have lost to the Frenchwoman, who for the fifth time in a row became the best squashist in the Old World. The result of this meeting is 3: 1 (8:11, 11: 7, 11: 7, 11: 5) in favor of Serme. And the “bronze” went to Tinna Gilis, who in the match for third place in the most difficult five games managed to get out of the way of the recent offender of our Nadezhda Usenko Sinu Wall - 3: 2 (12:10, 14:12, 8:11, 11:13, 11 :five). Note that the aforementioned Omar managed to get away from the annoying defeat in the quarterfinals and finish the tournament on a positive note, taking fifth place.
But if we talk about the men's tournament, then this year Europe learned the name of the new champion. The nine-time winner of the title of the strongest athlete of the continent, Gregory Goltier, confidently passed all these days, also planned to retain this title and bring home a gold medal. For him, she would have become the tenth in turn over the past thirteen years (since 2004, Goltier missed only one 2012 championship, in the rest he invariably took part in the finals, losing only two of them to his fellow countryman Thierry Link, who had already completed his career player). But I found a scythe on a stone - for the second year in a row in the final he had to fight the Spaniard Borey Golan, who did not want to be satisfied with the silver again (already the fourth in his asset after the second places in 2006, 2012 and 2015). This match became a real highlight of the competition - Golan did everything to get rid of the title of a permanent loser in the final meetings. In the first game, Goltier managed to win only in a tie-break, and then completely lost in two games in a row. Yes, the champion's character and skill remained with him - with incredible efforts Gregory was able to level the score, in the fifth game he still tried to return to the game. But Golan was too inclined to give the opponent the opportunity to turn the tide of the meeting. The last game began extremely unsuccessfully for the Frenchman, who was three or four points behind in its course. Goltier still managed to bring the matter to decisive shots, lit on the scoreboard 9: 9, but the last two rallies remained with the Spanish squash player. A 3: 2 win (10:12, 11: 7, 11: 4, 3:11, 11: 9) - and the French racket master surrenders his championship credentials, and the Spanish squash fans celebrate their compatriot's first triumph at a continental level tournament ...
The championship was also remembered by the fact that both in the women's and men's tournaments the second seeding numbers left the race ahead of schedule - Colin Omar's “feat” was repeated by Mathieu Castagnier, who could not overcome the quarter-final stage. In this case, it is not uncommon for players who have set themselves the maximum tasks, are simply removed from the competition. This is often accompanied by a previous injury. So, in the last two days, a number of meetings did not take place - Castanier, Czechs Jan Koukal and Daniel Mekbib did not continue to fight for places. Therefore, the final places at the top of the tournament table were sometimes distributed only due to the individual rating of the performers.
It only remains to add about some indirect Ukrainian trace in the men's championship. In view of the first absence of our squash players in this tournament in many years, it remained only to root for those players who at one time represented the Ukrainian teams at the level of the European club championships. Frenchman Luca Serme, after the fifth place at the 2015 European Championship, has now become a medalist - in the “bronze” match he beat the German Rafael Kandra with a score of 3: 1 (8:11, 13:11, 11: 8, 12:10). And the Czech squash player Ondřej Uherka got into the Top 10 of the European Forum (his compatriot Martin Švec refused to fight after the first game of the match for ninth place). However, it is worth making a reservation: it is not known what the final balance of power would be, if at least one player from the homeland of squash - Great Britain - took part in the competition. The British have long ignored the individual European championships, and therefore the competition in these championships is completely different than in the commercial PSA tournaments. The strength of their squash can be assessed only at the club-team European Championship that starts on September 14, which will be held in Pontefract, England.
Individual European Championship (Prague, Czech Republic)
7-10.09.2016
Final position
Men
Boria Golan (Spain, 3/4)
Gregory Goltier (France, 1)
Luca Sermet (France, 3/4)
Raphael Kandra (Germany, 5/8)
Akel Rehman (Austria, 5/8)
Iker Pajares (Spain, 5/8)
Mathieu Castagnier (France, 2)
Jan Koukal (Czech Republic, 5/8)
Ondrej Uherka (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Martin Shvets (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Yuri Farneti (Italy, 9/16)
Petr Martin (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Oliviero Ventriche (Italy)
Jakub Solnicki (Czech Republic)
Jory Huppers (Belgium, 9/16)
Daniel Mekbib (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Thiago Gorieli (Belgium)
Jacob Dirnberger (Austria, 9/16)
Miroslav Zeller (Slovakia)
Martin Kegel (Croatia)
David Zeman (Czech Republic)
Matej Grnchirik (Slovakia)
Charalampos Leontarakis (Greece, 9/16)
Rosle Langus (Slovenia)
Jan Ryba (Czech Republic)
Tomas Toth (Slovakia)
Vojtech Fish (Czech Republic)
Lukasz Stachowski (Poland)
Roko Woncina (Croatia)
Piotr Hemmerling (Poland)
Ivan Krznarić (Croatia)
Rock Repovzh (Slovenia)
Women
Camille Sermet (France, 1)
Nele Gilis (Belgium, 3/4)
Tinne Gilis (Belgium, 5/8)
Sina Wall (Germany, 3/4)
Colin Omar (France, 2)
Anna Serme (Czech Republic, 5/8)
Birgit Koufal (Austria, 5/8)
Gisela Aranda (Spain, 5/8)
Ineta Matskevicha (Latvia, 9/16)
Teresa Svobodova (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Zuzana Kubanova (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Julie Rossignol (France, 9/16)
Nadezhda Usenko (Ukraine, 9/16)
Jacqueline Peychard (Austria, 9/16)
Riina Koskinen (Finland, 9/16)
Eva Fertekova (Czech Republic, 9/16)
Magdalena Kaminska (Poland)
Andrea Malinova (Slovakia)
Marika Doubravova (Czech Republic)
Veronika Kucherova (Slovakia)
Natalia Ryfa (Poland)
Sanne Feldkamp (Netherlands)
Elena Dutina (Serbia)
Veronica Goltie (Czech Republic)
Christina Fialova (Czech Republic)
Lucia Ekerova (Slovakia)
