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Kalinikos Kreanga and Panagiotis Gionis are two Greeks whose names are in the list of the Top 12 of the European championship in table tennis, (Liebherr Top 12 Europe) which will be held on February 6^th – 7^th in Düsseldorf.

In the yearly championship organized in Germany for the ninth time, are competing the best athletes of the old continent and the name of Kreanga is on the 6^th place of the list with the competitors. The new thing in the list of the European association of table tennis for this year is that for the first time the Greek Panagiotis Gionis will participate in the sports event. Currently Gionis is at the position of first substitute, however if anybody from the players in the list drops out from the tournament, Gionis will definitely compete… The thirty years old athlete could literary keep his hopes up until the very last moment as it is not unusual for some players to give up from participating in the last moment. Exactly the rejecting to participate by a competitor has qualified Gionis from the position of second substitute (along with the German Bastian Steger) to first substitute. The current European champion, the Dutch Michael Maze announced his withdrawal from participation in the tournament. Maze gave up the participation because of an injury, which also cost him his participation on the quarterfinals of the champions’ league. Along with the Greek delegation at the tournament in Düsseldorf will be present the coach of the Greek table tennis association Kostas Vatsaklis.  

The list with the names for Liebherr Top 12 was made on the basis of the European rank list in December 2009. Here are the names of the men who will take part in this year’s Top 12: Timo Boll – Germany, Vladimir Samsonov – Belarus, Michael Maze – Denmark, Dimitrij Ovcharov – Germany, Verner Shlager – Austria, Kalinikos Kreanga – Greece, Jurgen Persson – Sweden, Chen Weixing – Austria, Zoran Primorac – Croatia, Patrick Baum – Germany, Christian Zeus – Germany, Robert Gardos – Austria, Bastian Stager – Germany.

In the women’s team will take part: Liu Jia – Austria, Wu Jiaduo – Germany, Li Jiao – Netherlands, Victoria Pavlovich – Belarus, Krisztina Toth – Hungary, Lia Qian – Poland, Li Jie – Netherlands, Elizabeta Samara – Romania, Tamara Boros – Croatia, Ruta Paskausien – Lithuania, Elke Shal – Germany, Daniela Dodean – Romania.

Picture: Ta Nea On Line