European Team Championship: 2015

On April 23-26, Ljubljana (Slovenia) will host the 2015 European Team Championship of the third division and the Ukrainian national team takes part in this championship with the following composition:

Nadezhda Usenko
Alina Bushma
Yulia Pugach
Ekaterina Marusan
Liana Sardak

The national women's team began to form last year under the leadership of Oleksiy Usenko, and for the many years of the break he took the team to the European Championship for the first time, where Ukrainian women Nadezhda Usenko, Alina Bushma, Yulia Pugach and Liana Sardak successfully debuted and won bronze.

Thus, he greatly motivated all Ukrainian girls to grow, improve and develop professionally - compared to last year, three Ukrainian women appeared in the WSA ranking! These are Nadezhda Usenko, Anastasia Fesenko and Victoria Sebova. And the regular holding of tournaments under the auspices of the WSA attracts foreign athletes, such as Ineta Mackevica (Latvia), Ekaterina Marusan (Russia), Maria Shpakova (Switzerland), Eliza Kargioti (Greece), Anastasia Gross (Sweden), Irina Kulbatskaya (Belarus) and others. come and take part in these competitions, earning points in your rating, giving and gaining invaluable experience of playing with new interesting rivals.

And what was the cost of the confrontation between Anastasia Fesenko and Liana Sardak, which we have seen last year at every Ukrainian tournament!

This year, a place in the national team was won by the more experienced Liana, who confirmed this with her victory at the last Championship of Ukraine. However, this will only strengthen the already rapid progress of Fesenko and, possibly, next year she will also defend the Ukrainian flags at the European Championship.

Alexey Usenko, the chief manager of the national women's team, a member of the Squash Federation of Ukraine, talks about the goals, the seeding of our team, the composition and training.

Objectives: “A year ago, having made its debut at the European Championships, our team won the bronze medal. This year our team is faced with the task of reaching the 2nd division. For this, our girls must, at least, reach the final of the European Championship in Ljubljana. "

Seeding: “The composition of the third division this year is very strong: Poland, Greece, Malta, Croatia… The Jersey team is the“ dark horse ”. As part of Great Britain, Jersey can bring English women to the European Championship who do not qualify for the England squad ... The more interesting the games will be ... Any country can declare in the squad a player who has not played for another team in two years. In the application of the Ukrainian National Team Ekaterina Marusan is the Champion of Russia in 2011 and 2013. The last time Katya played for the Russian team was 3 years ago. And this year, together with the rest of the girls, he has a chance to win the "gold" of the European Championship! Everyone is determined only to win! Therefore, we do not pay attention to the nuances of the lot. Yes, group “A”, in which the Ukrainian national team ended up, looks stronger than group “B”…. But the games will put everything in its place "

Training camp: “For the first time, our women's team is holding a full camp before the main start of the season. Stefano Galifi, who is the coach of the team at this training camp, put the girls on full load! Someone could not go to the next training session, someone fell onto the court and could not continue to work ... This is Big Sport! And he spares no one. But, all the girls believe in their strength, all are ready to play and give all their best for the sake of victory! Our team will fly to the European Championship in two groups. On Monday, April 20, Yulia Pugach and Liana Sardak fly through Warsaw. On April 21, Katya Marusan, Alina Bushma and Nadezhda Usenko will fly through Amsterdam. On the evening of the 21st, the entire team should gather in Ljubljana, and on the 22nd the games begin. We will get practice on the courts of Ljubljana on the day of the games. I'm not sure if we have to play glass court. But, I am sure that our TEAM will give all its strength to win !!! "

Having visited one of the trainings of our athletes, I was impressed simply by how high the level of women's squash had become in Ukraine. I saw how serious our girls can be, how hard they give their all and give themselves to preparing for this important event - you can feel a powerful intention to win. And by doing everything in your power, you will definitely achieve your goal.

We wish success to our team, we are with you! We are waiting with victories and smiles on our faces!