The second stop of the European Teqball Tour was held in Tirgu Mures, where the players competed in 2 categories (Men's Doubles, Mixed Doubles).
The competition did not start well for us, as Soma Fördős, who won a bronze medal with Ádám Bakó at the Teqball World Series in Paris, suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the last training session 2 days before the start, so he must miss this season.
After that, there was no question that the team threw themselves into the competition with even more enthusiasm than usual and fought as one person for the best possible result.
In the men's doubles category, Ádám Bakó did not start with anyone else, so we had 1 pair left, the duo Bence Forgács - Mátyás Odnoga.
In the group, they confidently beat the Polish pair Adrian Duszak - Grzegorz Staskiewicz, the Brazilian Lucas Prado - Rayan Steglich and the Romanian pair Szőcs Apor - János Kis, thus reaching the top 16 as group leaders.
To reach the top 8 the opponent Krystian Michalczyk - Jan Ochedalski followed, who were beaten 2:0 (12:4, 8:12) with the confidence they showed in the group.
To reach the semi-finals, they had to beat the former world champion Ádám Blázsovics - Csaba Bányik double. In the first set, the routine prevailed, our boys started rather sleepy, so the Blázsovics/Bányik duo won the set 12-3. We managed to organize our thoughts for the second set and with a huge feat we won by 12:10, so we equalized. Going head-to-head in the final set, to the surprise of many, we came out on top, winning the third set by 12:10. With this, our pair qualified for the next day's semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, our opponent was the up-and-coming duo of Balázs Katz and Balázs Velkey, who also successfully overcame the pair of Blázsovics-Bányik at the last Teqball World Series. We knew they weren't going to make it easy for us to reach the final. So it was. In the end, we were able to win in 3 very close sets, 12:9, 9:12, 12:8 and reach the final.
The classic Serbian world champion Bogdan Marojevic - Nikola Mitro was waiting for us in the final. The pair with a great routine also started hard. They played undaunted and pulled away to 10:2 when Mátyás Odnoga scored a point from a huge scissor move, blowing up the entire hall and bringing most of the fans to his side. to catch up, but in the end the Serbians won the first set 12:7. The second set also brought beautiful moves and ended up being a real one-on-one match. The feat was not successful, but the silver also shines very brightly. Final result: 2:0 (12:7,12:10)
(Matyas bicycle kick video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ripdbwlAG1g )
We started with 4 pairings in the Mixed Pairs Category.
Our pair Bence Forgács - Rebeka Godó was placed in a rather difficult group of 3, where they could not overcome the Serbian pairs Nikola Mitro - Maja Umicevic and the Romanian pairs Arnold Szilágyi - Kinga Barabási, so they had to say goodbye in the group.
Our duo Mátyás Odnoga and Nóra Vicsek were able to qualify for the top 16 in second place in an extremely intense match. In the group of 4, there was a round-robin, which meant that the last match against Patryk Kaminski and Paulina Lezak had to be won with a ratio of 2:0. The first set was won 12:8, and the second set was won 12:11 after the score was 11:11.
Our third pair is a hybrid composition. Petra Péchy teamed up with the excellence of the Phoenix Teqball Academy, Ádám Blázsovics, for the competition. They confidently won their group against French, Romanian and Brazilian players.
Unfortunately for us, the draw made it so that the Péchy - Blázsovics pair had to play against the Odnoga-Vicsek pair in order to reach the top 8. In a fair and close fight, the Blázsovics - Péchy duo finally won. 2:0 (12:8, 12:11)
A more difficult opponent for reaching the semi-finals could not really come, as the current world champion Csaba Bányik - Zsanett Janicsek followed. In the end, we lost in a close match (12:10, 12:8), but the newly assembled couple proved that they can do anything in the future. We are looking forward to the next competition.
Our fourth pair is the duo Ádám Bakó - Lea Vasas, who were perhaps not so hungry for the final victory yet. The ugly defeat they suffered in France among the 16 and the injury of Soma Fördős, who is Ádám Bakó's teammate in men's doubles, endowed them with unprecedented concentration.
They won their group almost without a drop of sweat, and nothing is more evident than the fact that the Czech pair hid under the table after the 12:0 set loss, showing amazing sportsmanship and respect for the sport. Here too, maximum respect for the couple Lukas Flaks - Gabriela Zachova.
Our pair easily made it to the top 8, as they saw off the Polish pair Alan Galecki - Ewa Kaminska with a score of 12:4, 12:5.
The highest-ranked pair of Frankie Diaz and Carolyn Greco in the United States followed to reach the semi-finals.
The Bakó-Vasas pair didn't blink (12-4, 12-4), so they could prepare for the next day's semifinals.
The bronze medalists of the Teqball World Series in Paris, Hugo Rabeux - Amelie Julian, were waiting for us in the semi-finals. In an exciting one-on-one match, we finally managed to win with a ratio of 12:11, 12:11, so we made it to the final.
In the final, the world champion and recent World Series winner Csaba Bányik - Zsanett Janicsek were the opponents.
Zsanett Janicsek played the match of her life with an outsider's eye and according to her own admission. Thanks to this, they managed to win the first set at 12:11 amid amazing excitement. In the second set, we couldn't get our heads together, so Lea Vasas, representing the Agroméra Teqball Academy Sports Association, and Ádám Bakó, representing the Steqerz Teqball Club, were able to stand on the second step of the podium.
We would like to thank the International Teqball Association (FITEQ), the Romanian Teqball Association and ALL the staff who participated in the organization.
