Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara had secured the top prize in the Women’s Doubles competition at the European Championships in Herning (Denmark), overcoming 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), according to ittf.com.Victory for Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara gives them a special place in the annals of Romanian table tennis; despite the immense success enjoyed by Romania at the European Championships, no Romanian partnership has ever won the Women’s Doubles title on more than one occasion, ittf.com notes.Angelica Rozeanu won in Budapest in the inaugural tournament in 1958 when she partnered Ella Constantinescu; two years later in Zagreb she won again, on that occasion partnering Maria Alexandru.Two titles for Angelica Rozeanu and two for Maria Alexandru, she won again in 1978 in Duisburg, partnering Liana Mihut.However, the most successful Romanian is Mihaela Steff. She won on three consecutive occasions; she struck gold in Zagreb in 2002, one year later in Courmayeur and in 2005 in Aarhus but the successes were not with a compatriot, she partnered Croatia’s Tamara Boros on each occasion. In the men’s competition, Romania’s Adrian Crisan qualified for the semifinals of the European Championships in Herning, Denmark, on Saturday, ensuring that Romania will win a medal in the men’s table tennis competition after a 52-year break. The last medal that Romanian players won in this competition dates back to 1960 when Radu Negulescu won silver in the European Championships in Zagreb, frtenismasa.ro informs. Crisan qualified for the semifinals after defeating Portugal’s Joao Monteiro in the semifinals, 4-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5). In the semi-final Crisan was defeated on Sunday by German Timo Boll 4-1 (10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 12-10).
