In single events France, Germany and Romania were the best just like in team events - each of them won 3 gold medals, France additionally 2 silver and 6 bronze medals, Germany 2 silver and 2 bronze, Romania 3 bronze medals. Poland was quite successful, winning 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. Sweden can find comfort with the gold medal of their cadet boys in doubles, gold medal and bronze medals of their junior boys in doubles. The Russians must surely be quite disappointed with only 2 bronze medals, just like Croatia which on the contrary can be happy with such a result. Hungary and Serbia won each 1 silver and 1 bronze medal, Czech 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal was won by Portugal, Belgium, Turkey and England.
As usual in single events there were some surprises, but at the end in all competitions players who were favourites in their event won. In junior boys singles, behind Flore and Gauzy both bronze medals went to France too - in team events and in singles 5 French boys lost only 1 single match against a player who was not from France - Alexandre Robinot, the younger brother of the former European boys champion Quentin Robinot, lost in singles against the Italian player Mutti. In girl's junior singles Szocs and Solja were in finals, and a nice surprise was Croatian Rakovec who last year won bronze medal in cadet girl singles and in Schwechat in her first junior girls season, she won bronze! In cadet boys' singles, Alexandre Cassini (France) became the champion, who also won in team event 9 matches without a defeat, thus helping his team winning gold. The same happened in the cadet girls event - Alena Lemmer from Germany became champion in singles; for her team she reapeated what Cassini did - she won all 9 matches in the team competition and her team won gold!



A look back

The beginning
The first European Junior Championships were played in Germany in 1955. The beginning was not easy, championships were played each year from 1955 to 1959, then there was a pause, in 1961 and 1962 these championships were again organized, then came a new pause and from 1965 onwards the European Junior Championships have been played regularly each year. In 1968, together with the European Junior Championships, the European Cadet Championships were introduced, and since then Junior and Cadet Championships are played together. Such tournaments with many events and many players are step by step becoming too big, so today there are on the table proposals to divide these championships and play them separately. However, from a practical point of view it can hardly be expected that such a proposal will be accepted.
The first European Junior Champions in boys singles were W. Berger from Germany and in girls singles Livia Mossoczy from Hungary. So that in Europe we first had junior champions and a few years later European Champions in men and women singles - the first European Championships for men and women were played in Budapest, Hungary, in 1958! W. Berger, the first European junior champion, did not succeed to make a noticed international career, the first European girl champion Livia Mossozy became one of the best European women players of their time. The second European girl champion Maria Golopenca made an outstanding career, under the new family name Alexandru she became one of the most successful European women players of all times. Junior boys champion from 1957 Hans Alser became later European champion in men singles and World champion in men doubles!

Most successful European junior champions

Not many European cadet champions succeeded afterwards to become European boy's champions! Already forgotten B. Burnazyan from USSR became once cadet champion and twice boy's champion, but in men competition he remained only an average player. The same success in cadet and boys competition was repeated by Timo Boll, Vladimir Samsonov and Christian Süss, but they succeeded to become top players in men competition. The only player to become three times in a row European boys champion in singles was the great Jan Ove Waldner. He lost his only final game in cadet competition in 1980 against his team mate Jörgen Persson. Both players met much later twice in final games of Men World championships - once won Waldner, once Persson! Persson did not win European boys championships; Waldner was the best one in boy's competition for three years after the defeat in cadet finals!

One-time European cadet champion and afterwards one-time European boys champion became Slobodan Grujic (Yugoslavia), Kostadin Lengerov (Austria), Michael Maze (Denmark) and Marcos Freitas (Portugal). In girl's competition Gabrielle Würth (Hungary), Daniela Dodean (Romania) and Margaryta Pesocka (Ukraine) won each European cadet championships once and European girl's championships twice. Maria Golopenta (Alexandru) (Romania), Ilona Vostova (CSSR), Bettina Vriesekoop (Nederland) and Liu Jia (Austria) became each European girl's champion twice, while Ferdman and Ganina (both USSR) each won cadet girls once and girls championships once. Otilia Badescu (Romania) became the only player in boys and girls events to become three times in a row European cadet girls champion, afterwards she won European girls championships once and became European champion in women singles once.
Quite interesting is the list of boys and girls who after they won European boys or girls single championships became European champions in men or women singles. After winning boys singles championships Alser, Orlowsky, S. Bengtsson, Waldner, Samsonov and Boll became European champions in men singles too, whereas in women competition the same success was repeated by Alexandru (Golopenta), Rudnova, Vriesekoop, Bulatova, Badescu, Batorfy and Liu Jia.
In the last fifty years no European woman became World champion in singles, but 6 European players became in that period World champions in singles - Jonyer, Gatien and Schlager became World champions, but have never been European boys champions, S. Bengtsson and Waldner were both European boys champions and afterwards World champions in men singles, J. Persson became World and European champion and was European cadet champion, but not European boys champion! A true sensation was the unique success of Stellan Bengtsson - in 1970 he won European boys championships, in 1971 he became World champion in men singles, in 1972 he became European champion in men singles!! Simply unbelievable!


European youth and the world!

The Official World Junior Championships are played since 2003. Up to now there were 9 tournaments, China dominated in all 7 events (boy's teams, singles and doubles, girl's teams, singles and doubles, mixed doubles), and gold medals went with very few exceptions to China. It must be said that China sent to junior championships mostly younger players, being 15, 16 of age, not as other countries that send their best juniors, mostly in their last or last but one junior year, being 17 or 18 years of age. There were even cases when China sent to tge World Junior Championships not their national selection but some regional team, and in spite of that they remained by far the most successful federation in the World Junior Championships. Europe succeeded in 9 World Junior Championships up to now to win only one gold medal - Patrick Baum (Germany) became 2005 in Linz (Austria) World Junior Champion in boy's singles!
The position of Europe in comparison with juniors from other continents is today not very good. Next to leading Asian countries like China, Japan, both Koreas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, other countries like Egypt, Brazil, and India are becoming better too and are serious opponents to the best European players. In boys competition French boys are a class of their own - the best European boys in World ranking list are 4 French players. Among the best 50 players in boys world ranking list there are 13 European players - 7 French players (!!), 2 German players, 1 from Belgium, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Italy, 1 from Hungary. French boys are by far the best team in Europe, since 2008 they won all gold medals in European championships, but French men team up to now did not profit much from it! In girls World ranking among the best 50 girls, there are 12 European girls - 3 German girls, 2 from Russia, 2 from Croatia, 2 from Romania, 1 from Austria, 1 from Nederland, 1 from Spain. It is quite amazing that there is no girl from France among best 50 and at the same time there are 7 French boys among best 50!! Traditionally Romanian cadet girls and girls are year after year among the top teams, just like their women. The Romanian women table tennis school is obviously quite successful, but Romanian women do not have much success when playing against the best Asian players. For several decades USSR and afterwards Russia were one of the leading countries in all cadet and junior categories in Europe, then there was for some period a crisis, and now they are coming back step by step. The big times of Sweden cadets and boys are now only history.
Young European players, such as boys Flore or Gauzy and girls Szocs or P. Solja will hopefully soon be able to make a big step forward and endanger the best men and women.