From November 26th to December 3rd, 2023, the Youth World Championships took place in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Several TIBHAR talents and national teams were also in attendance!
After the team competitions, two bronze medals were already confirmed: the male and female U19 teams from Romania secured their place in the semi-finals after great performances, where the boys led by Edy Ionescu were defeated by the eventual world champion China.
The girls had to admit defeat to a strong team from Japan.
In the individual events, the TIBHAR players were also very successful:
In the U15 doubles competition, the German up-and-coming player Josephina Neumann and her partner Itagaki reached the semi-finals – here, the two talents were defeated by the eventual world champion duo from Japan.
Another bronze medal in the U15 category was won by the left-handed Tiago Abiodun. The U15 European champion from Portugal also had to admit defeat to the eventual world champion Sun Yang from China.
In the U19 age category, more medals followed for the TIBHAR team: particularly noteworthy are the three medals won by Annett Kaufmann! The German national player secured the silver medal in both mixed (with Izaac Quek) and doubles (with Anna Hursey).
In both finals, she had to admit defeat to her opponents from China – even in the singles semi-final, she was stopped by a player from the Middle Kingdom. Annett played well against the highly favored and eventual world champion Kuai Man, but ultimately had to concede defeat.
For another young TIBHAR player, the Chinese were too strong in the doubles semi-final – the Pole Milosz Redzimski and his Japanese partner Hagihara had to bow out to Lin Shidong and Wen Ruibo with a 2:3 loss. Nevertheless, Redzimski can be satisfied with his performance, which was capped off with a quarter-final appearance in singles.
The last and probably most emotional medal was won by Edy Ionescu in the U19 singles. The Romanian right-hander managed to advance to the semi-finals in his last appearance at youth tournaments through strong performances.
Here, after leading 2:0, he ultimately lost 2:4 to the Chinese player Wen Ruibo – nonetheless, Ionescu was very pleased with this bronze medal and can close the chapter of ‘youth’ with a great success.
We congratulate all the medal winners on a fantastic tournament!