4 Gold Medals for Butterfly at the EC 2012

October 25, 2012

Courtesy of Butterfly.tt

Germany’s Timo Boll and Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus, both players supported by Butterfly, won the respective Men’s and Women’s Singles titles at the European Championships, which concluded in the Danish town of Herning on Sunday October 21, 2012.

At the semi-final stage Timo Boll, the top seed, beat Romania’s Adrian Crisan, the no.5 seed, in five games (10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 12-10) and thus extracted revenge for his fourth round Men’s Singles defeat in late August at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

A five games semi-final win, it was a similar margin of victory in the concluding contest against surprise finalist, Croatia’s Tan Ruiwu, the no.26 seed; just the fourth game eluded the Butterfly star as he marched to victory (11-2, 11-6, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9).

It is the sixth time that Timo Boll has won the Men’s Singles title at a European Championships; twice the number of his nearest rivals; Sweden’s Mikael Appelgren and Vladimir Samsonov are his nearest challengers, each has won the title three times.

Timo Boll won for the first time a decade ago in Zagreb before succeeding in 2007 in Belgrade, the following year in St Petersburg, in 2010 in Ostrava and most recently in 2011 in Gdansk-Spot.

Furthermore, if the year ends with the number “two”, it would seem it is a good year for Germany.

In addition to Timo Boll winning in 2012 and 2002, Jörg Rosskopf, the only other German to win the title, won in 1992 in Stuttgart.

Meanwhile, for Viktoria Pavlovich, she regained the title won in Ostrava two years ago.

On the concluding day of play, the 32 year old from Minsk, withstood a determined French challenge to emerge successful.

At the semi-final stage she ousted Li Xue, the no.16 seed (11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-9), before in the final defeating Xian Yifang, the no.15 seed (11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 13-11).

Similarly, in the Women’s Doubles event it was a title regained.

Romania’s Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara, the winners in 2009 in Stuttgart and the top seeds in Herning, clinched gold; they overcame the third seeded German pairing of Kristin Silbereisen and Wu Jiaduo in the semi-finals (17-15, 6-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5), before defeating the Hungarian partnership of Krisztina Toth and Georgina Pota, the no.2 seeds, in a most hard fought final (7-11, 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 21-19, 11-5).

Success as seeding predicted but that was not the situation in the Men’s Doubles event where there were surprise winners.

Austria’s Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn, the no.6 seeds, secured the top prize.

They ousted the partnership of Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, the no.3 seeds at the semi-final stage (11-2, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5), before defeating the Swedish combination of Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson, the no.5 seeds in the final.

In a tension packed seven games duel resolved the Austrians won by the minimal two point margin in the deciding game (12-10, 11-9, 10-12, 11-13, 11-5, 13-15, 12-10).

It is only the second time in what is now 31 editions of the European Championships that an Austrian pair has won the Men’s Doubles title.

Furthermore that was on the only previous occasion that the tournament has been staged in Denmark.

In 2005 in Aarhus, Karl Jindrak and Werner Schlager beat Kalin Kreanga and Vladimir Samsonov in the final to arrest the title.

Titles for four different countries - Germany, Belarus, Austria, Romania – but one common factor, all featured players supported by Butterfly.

The Medalists of the EC 2012
Men's Singles
Gold: Timo Boll GER
Silver: Tan Ruiwu CRO
Bronze: Bastian Steger GER
Bronze: Adrian Crisan ROU

Women's Singles
Gold: Viktoria Pavlovich BLR
Silver: Xian Yi Fang FRA
Bronze: Li Xue FRA
Bronze: Liu Jia AUT

Men's Doubles
Gold: Robert Gardos/Daniel Habesohn AUT
Silver: Kristian Karlsson/Mattias Karlsson SWE
Bronze: Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER/Vladimir Samsonov BLR
Bronze: Alexey Liventsov/Mikhail Paykov RUS

Women's Doubles
Gold: Daniela Dodean/Elizabeta Samara ROU
Silver: Krisztina Toth/Georgina Pota HUN
Bronze: Britt Eerland NED/Dora Madarasz HUN
Bronze: Kristin Silbereisen/Wu Jiaduo GER