European Championships Day 1 Round Up

Hi All,

Day one at in Holland proved to be an exciting affair with many games won on nailbiting finishes.
I opened the show in our men's singles and had to battle through a very tough 3 setter against Vladislav Druzchenko. I won the first set 22-20 after being 20-19 behind. Thew second set saw my opponent take the game 21-17. The final set was again a very tight affair but I remained focused and came out on the good side of a 21-19 win. All in all it was a really tough game but I came through it and won. Im reliably told that it was the longest game of the day at 55 minutes.
The rest of the lads were amazing to. Alex lost his opening game 21-10 but showed real grit and determination to push the second set really close but just lost out in the end 22-20. Sam lost the third men's singles 13-21 15-21 but then played the 1st mens doubles with Daniel and lost out in two very close sets 21-23 18-21. Our Opponents conceeded that final game so the final score was 3-2 to Ukraine.

The girls also lost on the opening day but again there were some massive performances with so many of the games being so much closer than the scoreline suggests. Its such a great feeling to play for Ireland and the team and management are determined to give their all.

Today we have two tough games, but again all games are tough at this level. The lads take on the fancied Ducth team with Palayma and Pang on board and given that they are playing at home should make this a very noisy affair. The Girls take on Russia with the powerful Ella Diehl and Anastasia Russkikh. IM confident that both us lads and the girls will cause a few upsets.

Come on Ireland!!!