Sunday, 24th November, was a ping pong day. Table tennis fans gathered at the sports club Stiga at bd. Dacia 31, to take part in the table tennis tournament “Ping-Pong Day”, organized within the framework of the project “Sporter Weekend” started by the sports social network Sporter.md. The competition attracted more than 150 participants including 8 women and 11 young men under sixteen who were assigned to separate brackets.

Frankly, even the organizers hadn’t expected that the tournament would arouse such great interest. As a result, they had to extend the application deadline. Eventually, on Thursday, November 21, at 18:00 the last name (number 184) was included in the list of participants.

Then our biggest problem was how to create brackets. The solution was offered by the Table Tennis School from Dubasari headed by V. S. Grosul, honored coach of Moldova, who helped us develop the system of the competition.

On Friday, at the office of the company Simpals (with Sporter.md being a part of it), in the presence of Ivan Danilov (chief umpire of Ping-Pong Day, master of sports in table tennis, the reigning champion of Moldova playing for “Elvitis-com” ) the participants were randomly drawn into the brackets.

Finally, the big day arrived! Despite the fact that the registration was supposed to start at 10 am, some participants were coming earlier. As a result, the girls responsible for registration and issuing of badges had to work hard to handle the crowd.

Of course, some applicants didn’t manage to come. But their places were taken by the newcomers who saw the banner at the entrance of the club Stiga and decided to try their hand. Among them were Igor Shishov who took the 2nd place and Alexei Jereghi, a 66-year-old man who was one of five finalists and lost only two games: the semi-finals and third place match. The bronze medal was awarded to Vadim Pleshka.

Vitali Stratan won the gold medal in men’s competition, beating Igor Shishov 3-0 in the final. Each of the three finalists received gift certificates for membership in the fitness club Alexia for 1000, 750 and 500 lei respectively as well as discount coupons which can be used to purchase sporting goods at the chain stores Sport Line.

In the women’s singles Olga Nekulcha and Liubov Metlova were fighting for gold medal. There was a tug-of-war between youth and experience. In that match experience defeated youth. By the way, the winner Liubov Metlova applied to participate in the free diving tournament “A Gulp of Air”, which will be held in the framework of SporterWeekend. She is certainly a good role model for everyone! The winners received certificates for membership in the fitness club Alexia and gifts from the store Sport Line. The award ceremony was attended by Alexey Pervanchuk, director of the fitness club Alexia.

The children’s category included young participants under the age of 16. The youngest participant – Kazimir Ushanly – was only 6 years old. By the way, his entire family attended the event: his brother Kirill also played in the children’s category, but his father Vadim was competing against adult players. The final was contested between 10-year-old Oleg Danilov and 16-year-old Anatoly Dunai. This time youth won out over experience and the top prize was taken by Oleg Danilov from Dubasari. The winners were awarded with tennis racquet covers provided by the store Sport Line.

We should note that due to the fitness club Alexia no one left the event without a gift. Every participant received 500 lei gift certificates from the fitness club Alexia valid for 2 people.

In other words, the event was a success! The excitement caused by the amateur tournament “Ping-Pong Day” demonstrated how popular this sport is in Moldova.

The sports social network Sporter.md would like to thank all the participants who joined us!

Big thanks to the table tennis club Stiga for providing room, the fitness club Alexia and chain stores Sport Line for the gifts, the OM brand for the supply of drinking water and the marketing agency Klever-Media for printing banners and posters!

We also thank the table tennis school from Dubasari and its director V.S. Grosul for support and assistance, the chief umpire Ivan Danilov and his assistant Denis Tserna!

We remind you that every month the company Simpals and the sports social network Sporter.md organize various sports activities within the framework of the project “Sporter Weekend”. On December 1, the free-diving competition “A Gulp of Air”. will be held in the swimming pool of the fitness club Niagara. We have many surprises in store for you, so stay tuned!