Margaryta Pesotska has won, for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, a medal at the European Table Tennis Championships held the other day in Stuttgart, Germany, reports the press service of Ukraine’s Ministry for Family, Youth, and Sports.
The 18-year-old Kyivite won the silver medal, coming second best after a German player. In the semifinals, Pesotska beat 4 to 2 Lithuania’s Ruta Paskauskiene, one of the tournament’s main favorites and the current champion of Europe. In the quarterfinals, Margaryta defeated the Austrian Jia Liu, who ranks Europe’s first, with 4 to 3. According to the NOC Ukraine’s official website, in the final our player faced Jiaduo Wu from Germany, who left the Ukrainian girl no chances in the bid for the gold medal with the score of 4 to 0.
It will be recalled that Pesotska was the European Junior champion in 2006. At the time, she won gold medals in the teams, doubles, and singles. But this year’s gold is also quite a success for Margaryta. Ukraine has shown again that it has promising, talented, enthusiastic and strong-willed athletes. They are able to achieve much better results than experts might forecast and thus become a true sensation and a source of national pride.
