Ukrainian juniors at the Romanian Junior Open 2022

Nestor Saplashenko, Artem Panchenko, Dmytro Shcherbakov and Maxim Tokar received medals at the international tournament of Romania, which was held in Bucharest from October 21 to 23, 2022. 54 juniors who came from 7 European countries gathered to participate in it.

According to the results of the draw, at least five of our players were favorites of the tournament from the start. It was clear that the Ukrainian juniors were going to win and increase their points in the ESF rating table, which instead happened.

According to the results of the international tournament, Nestor Saplashenko (boys under 11 years old), Artem Panchenko (boys under 15 years old) and Dmytro Shcherbakov (boys under 19 years old) won the first places. Maxim Tokar, in turn, took silver. The junior lost only one match (in the final), losing to the Greek Nikolaos Efthymiou.

Mykyta Tomenchuk, the debutant of international competitions, also performed well. Nikita managed to defeat the Romanian and Bulgarian squash players at the beginning of the competition, in addition, it was he who "knocked out" the leader of the youngest category, compatriot Hleb Doroshenko, from the way to the prize place in the 1/4 finals. But in the semi-finals, he met Nestor Saplashenko, the tournament's second seed, who has a bit more experience on the international stage. The match ended with a score of 3:0. In the end, Tomenchuk took 4th place.

Anastasia Krykun was the only girl from Ukraine at the tournament. The women's national team lost three straight games in group matches on their way to fifth place, but rallied in their last 2 matches for 5th-8th place to beat first [3/4] Theodora Papadopoulou and then Alexandra Ghiorghisor by a score (9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-3) and (12-14, 6-11, 10-12), respectively.

Other Ukrainian squash players took the following places in their age categories: Hleb Doroshenko (BU11) - 8, Orest Saplashenko (BU15) - 9. For all of them, this tournament became a good school for matches with foreign athletes.

Our congratulations to the young squash players - winners, prize-winners and their coaches, as well as parents! Good luck and victory.

For more information on the results of this tournament, see here. Photos from the Romanian Junior Open 2022 tournament are available on Facebook.