update Unchaining joy for Iulian Chiriță, after qualifying in the “quarters” at the U19 World Cup » Bronze medal in doubles: the mixed doubles final is coming!

Between November 23-30, BTarena in Cluj-Napoca is the host of the World Junior Table Tennis Championship. The Romanian delegation ensured 2 medalsboth through Iulian Chiriță, who is qualified in the semifinals in doubles and in the finals in mixed doubles.

Update at 18:15 » Bronze medal for Iulian Chiriță in doubles

Iulian Chiriță and Tiago Abiodun (Portugal) fought this evening with Ryuusei Kawakami and Kazuki Yoshiyama from Japan, in the men's doubles world semifinal. The Japanese proved to be too strong for the Romanian-Lusitanian pair and won 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 12-10).

So, Chiriță and his teammate won the bronze medal at the U19 WC. The Romanian athlete will have the opportunity to win a brighter medal sometime after 20:00, when he will play alongside the Welsh Anna Hursey in the mixed doubles final.

Return from 0-2 for Iulian Chiriță in the round of 16 of the U19 World Championship

After the disappointment experienced in the team competition, the 19-year-old athlete impressed with his evolutions in doubles and brought 2 medals for Romania, the only unknown being their color.

On Friday, November 28, he returned to the table in BTarena, for the confrontation with Hsu Hsien-Chia (Taipei) in the “eights” of the U19 men's singles event. Supported from the stands by a small but noisy gallery, Chiriță started the match hard and lost the first 2 sets.

But the Romanian kept his confidence and, point by point, started to come back into the match. Chiriță won the next two sets, and the game was restarted. Hsien-Chia quickly got over the disappointment in sets 3 and 4 and took the lead again, but the last 2 sets belonged to Chiriță.

In the end, he won 4-3 (7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 13-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8) and qualified for the quarterfinals of the World Championship, where he will meet the Japanese Kazuki Yoshiyama.

But, until Saturday's confrontation, Chiriță will have two extremely important matches. Today, at 17:30, together with the Portuguese Tiago Abiodun, he will fight for a place in the final of the doubles competitionhaving as opponents the Japanese Ryuusei Kawakami and Kazuki Yoshiyama.

Then, from 8:00 p.m. Chiriță and the Welsh Anna Hursey will fight for gold in the mixed doubles final in Cluj-Napoca. The opponents of the Romanian-Welsh couple will be the Chinese Li Hechen and Qin Yuxuan.

Iulian Chiriță, for GSP.ro: “My coach reassured me. I am very happy”

Although he had very little time at his disposal, Iulian Chiriță gave a short interview to GSP.ro in which he spoke both about qualifying in the singles “quarters” and about the semifinal and final this afternoon.

– Hello, Julian! Congratulations on qualifying for the quarters! How was this match for you?
– Yes, it was a very difficult match. From the beginning I knew he was a very good opponent. The last two games I remember were as tough as this one. He led 2-0 each time and we came back 3-2, 12-10, 11-9.
I started today's match quite badly. I didn't take the opportunity to take the second set, maybe it was different, but I fought until the last point. My trainer calmed me down and gave me the tactics that helped me win. I'm very happy, I still don't realize it. I also want to thank the supporters who came here, the family and I hope they will come to the next matches to support us.

– After the point that secured your victory, I saw an outburst of joy. What does qualifying in the top 8 players of the world mean to you?
– It's the first time I qualify in the top 8 at a World Championship. Especially since it's my last junior world championship and it's also in Romania, I set out from the beginning of the competition to get some good results. Even though I didn't achieve that in the teams, I calmed down afterwards and became even more ambitious to play even better and fight for every ball.
After winning the last point, I completely calmed down. I had a lot of emotions during the match, that's why I was calm, I didn't shout. I won the last point and let all my emotions out.

Iulian Chiriță, before the doubles semifinal and mixed doubles final: “In sport, everything is possible”

– What expectations do you have for the next match in the singles competition?
– I will play against a Japanese, I have never played with him. But I will prepare, the coach will tell me what tactics to use and I will fight from start to finish. I hope I can beat him, but of course he is a very good player and I will have to take each point one step at a time. Until then I have the doubles semi-final and the mixed doubles final. I now focus on these two pieces of evidence.

– Today you will play a semi-final and a world final. How do you see the two parties?
– There are two very difficult matches, we are playing against Asian players. In doubles with some Japanese, very good players. But with my partner Tiago from Portugal we play very well, we are also at the club together in Germany. I say if we start aggressively we can beat them. But in sport everything is possible.
In the final you never know what can happen. We are playing against some Chinese. So far we have played very well, we have turned many games around and we hope to play the last game as well.

The results obtained by Iulian Chiriță at the U19 World Championship

Simple:

• Sixteenth: 4-3 (11-5, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 11-5) vs. Aditya Sareen (Australia)

• Best: 4-3 (7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 13-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8) vs. Hsu Hsien-Chia (Taipei)

Doubles (with Tiago Abiodun from Portugal):

• Optimi: 3-0 (11-5, 13-11, 12-10) vs. Alan Kurmangaliyev (Kazakhstan)/Benyamin Faraji (Iran)

• Quarters: 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 12-10) vs. Ankur Bhattacharjee/Abhinandh Pradhivadhi (India)

Mixed Doubles (with Anna Hursey of Wales):

• Round of 16: 3-2 (9-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8) vs. Wen Ruibo/Zong Geman (China)

• Optimi: 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-9) vs. Steven Moreno/Edmarie Leon (Puerto Rico)

• Quarters: 3-2 (11-13, 11-9, 11-13, 13-11, 11-8) vs. Flavien Coton/Leana Hochart (France)

• Semifinals: 3-1 (11-6, 1-11, 11-5, 12-10) vs. Ryuusei Kawakami/Sachi Aoki (Japan)