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Charleroi win first final

Samsonov, Primorac, Saive take Beligan team closer to Championship

Saturday, April 13, 2002

[updated]

SVS Niederösterreich - Royal Villette Europlus Charleroi 2:3

13. 4. 2002, 15.00

800 spectators

Chen Weixing -Samsonov 13:11, 9:11, 11:6, 11:9
Schlager -Primorac 9:11, 8:11, 12:10, 7:11
Lengerov -Saive 14:16, 7:11, 12:14
Chen Weixing -Primorac 11:5, 11:9, 11:8
Schlager -Samsonov 10:12, 5:11, 11:13

ETTU Press Release

Subdued mood in Schwechat. The door to the blissfulness was slammed and 800 disappointed spectators left the Körner-Halle. For the Lower Austrians everything had begun so beautifully: Chen Weixing defeated with a great performance Vladimir Samsonov, cracking attacks changed with sensational, extremely flat defensive balls and the enthusiasm of the fans was boundless. Everyone now expected the 2:0 by Werner Schlager, but Austria’s figurehead had got a black day. All attempts to find into his usual style of play failed against Zoran Primorac, quite often one of Schlager’s favourite opponents. Subsequently, Kostadin Lengerov offered hard resistance to the Belgian Jean-Michel Saive, but remained without gaining a single game. Again then it was Chen Weixing who brought the public on full blast. With his repulse he hold Zoran Primorac in chess and in between he scored with power attacks, unanswered by the Croatian. In the decisive meeting, Schlager wasted a 10:5 lead in the third game and submitted himself in consequence to Vladimir Samsonov, who likewise did not act in his best form. “The result of Our desire was in range, but Werner could it not translate into reality today”, grieves manager Dr. Johann Friedschröder. And he adds: “altogether it was a fantastic match, spectators and sponsors showed themselves fascinated by our sport. But unfortunately the actually realistic 3:1 converted into a 2:3, and now only a miracle might help us.”

“With this outcome we are naturally very happy”; Charleroi’s boss Gerard Baude summarizes the result on a common denominator. “Our players had a hard time and also problems with their concentration due to the noise in the totally full, small hall. Beyond that, Samsonov was not completely fit, since he had a violation at his right hand. Primorac and Saive still were totally out of power after the European championships in Zagreb.” The same argument applies probably also to Werner Schlager; scheduling the first leg of the finals so tidy after the European championships has been criticized a lot.

Spectators:

The beautiful and well-maintained Körner-Halle was packed with 800 spectators to capacity. Fair atmosphere and much enthusiasm revealed the standard of the table tennis sport. Once again it has been shown that duels between attack and defence players go down best with the audience.

TV transmissions
There were and will be the following transmissions:
TW1 (Austria), live;
ORF (Austria), 14. 4. 2002, large report in “Sportbild”;
RTBF. Belgium;
EBU (European Broadcasting union) brief reports to all TV stations.

Next Final: 26. 4. 2002, 20.00

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Charleroi win first final

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