Euro U19 Champs Prague

Euro U19 Champs 2019 : Teams

After two days of Pool matches the playoffs are set

21-Apr, Final:
[1] England 2-0 [2] Switzerland        
Ben Smith 3-1 Campbell Wells    11-7, 11-3, 10-12, 11-8
Sam Todd 3-2 Yannick Wilhelmi  12-10, 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6
Elise Lazarus v Ambre Allinckx

Ten titles in a row for England

Tomas Forter reports

The final day of U19 European junior team championships decided about all the final positions. We started with the lower positions in the morning and gradually worked towards the final.

In third place match home team of Czech republic played Ireland. In the first match Marek Panáček played much better than yesterday in the semifinal and beat Conor Moran for the first time in his life to get the first point for home team. Viktor Byrtus confirmed he was by far the best player of the tournament and continued his dominating form against Sam Buckley to get the winning second point for Czech team which secured them bronze medals for third year in a row.

The final between England and Switzerland started with a match between Ben Smith and Campbell Wells. Smith was a better player up to 10/9 in the third but then Campbell started to play really well. He saved the matchball, won the third and the fourth was very close all the way. Englishman Smith won it at the end and England was in the lead.

Yannick Wilhelmi was slight favourite of the second match against Sam Todd. But Sam was saving his best performance of the tournament for the final. He won the first, Yannick got back into the match to win next two but Sam played a very good fourth game to draw level.

At the beginning of the fifth Yannick was just too nervous and made too many cheap mistakes. The big lead he gave to Sam was enough and Sam managed to win the decisive second point for his country. England celebrated their 33rd title in their 36th final appearance (in 36 years of the tournament).

20-Apr, Semis:
[1] England 2-1 [4] Czech Rep
[2] Switzerland 2-1 [3] Ireland

20-Apr, Quarters:
[1] England 2-1 [7] Spain  |       [4] Czech Rep 2-1 [6] France
[2] Switzerland 2-1 [8] Wales  |  [3] Ireland 3-0 [5] Scotland

Top seeds England and Switzerland through to final

Tomas Forter reports

The knock out stage of U19 European junior team championships started today in Prague with quarterfinals and semifinals played on the same day. In the morning quarterfinals all higher seeded teams confirmed their positions and advanced to the evening´s semifinals. England beat Spain 2/1, Czech republic beat France 2/1, Ireland beat Scotland 3/0 and Switzerland beat Wales 2/1.

First semifinal was played between top seeded England and no. 4 Czech republic. Today´s order of matches was boy 1, boy 2, girl. So the first match was played between European champions from individual event Viktor Byrtus and English no. 1 Sam Todd. Viktor controlled the match from the beginning and never allowed Sam to get into the match. 3/0 and 1/0 lead for the home team.

With English no. 1 girl Elise Lazarus being big favourite to win the girls´ match boy 2 match was actually the decider. Lewis Anderson started well and got the first game against Marek Panáček. Second was much closer and Lewis was a bit lucky at the end to win it when he started to look a bit tired. In the third Marek tried to work Lewis hard and they played long and tough rallies and this tactics seemed to work well for home favourite.

When he won the third and was ahead 8/5 in the fourth the home crowd felt there was a great chance. But Lewis played some very good rallies at the end of the game and all his shots went in and managed to turn the score and win. Elise Lazarus confirmed her position of big favourite to win and she beat Michaela Čepová comfortably 3/0.

That put England into the final for the 36th time in a row!

The second semifinal between seeds 2 Switzerland and 3 Ireland started with a repeat of boys individual semifinal. Yannick Wilhelmi managed to beat Sam Buckley again. This time it was 3/1. Conor Moran started the second match very well for Ireland. He won the first game against Campbell Wells and looked in control. But Campbell started to play better and better.

He managed to win next two games quite comfortably. But Conor dug in and managed to win 11/9 in the fifth. So the girls´ match had to decide the winner. Ambre Allinckx from Switzerland proved she is stronger than Sophie O´Rourke, won 3/0 and secured her team a place in tomorrow´s final. Ireland will play Czech republic for third place.

Euro U19 Champs 2019 : Individuals

It was a double triumph for Eastern European in Prague as home favourite and top seed Viktor Byrtus, runner-up last year, beat second seeded Swiss in three close games, and Poland’s Karina Tyma completed a hat-trick of wins over higher-seeded players as she beat England’s Katie Malliff in straight games.

2018 Champs Poland