Europe Qualification Tournament for Rio Olympics 2016

[TableTennisDaily]

European Rio Olympic Qualification Tournament, 12th April to 16th April 2016, Halmstad, Sweden

The European qualification tournament for the Rio Olympics 2016 will take place next week in Sweden, the recent home of the 2015 Men's World cup. Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Netherlands Li Jiao have already qualified having won the European Games in Baku last year. The question on everyones mind is which 10 men and women will qualify from Europe for the upcoming Rio Olympics which takes place in just over 3 months time.

Only 2 players can represent each National Olympic Committee in the men's and women's singles events. For example Germany can only enter 1 player for the qualification tournament as Ovtcharov has already qualified.

Total number of entries so far is: 157

Men's Singles Seeds

Vladimir Samsonov, the World #8 has entered the Qualification Tournament as the #1 seed.

Vladimir Samsonov no.1 seed - Photo by: ITTF Flickr

01) Vladimir Samsonov
02) Timo Boll
03) Marcos Freitas
04) Andrej Gacina
05) Tiago Apolonia
06) Alexander Shibaev
07) Simon Gauzy
08) Stefan Fegerl
09) Kristian Karlsson
10) Par Gerell
11) Bastian Steger
12) Panagiotis Gionis
13) Mattias Karlsson
14) Liam Pitchford
15) Li Ahmet
16) Robert Gardos


Women's Singles Seeds

Han Ying enters as the no.1 seed - Photo by: ITTF

01) Han Ying
02) Petrissa Solja
03) Xiaona Shan
04) Melek Hu
05) Li Jie
06) Li Qian
07) Elizabeta Samara
08) Jia Liu
09) Yanfei Shen
10) Georgina Pota
11) Tetyana Bilenko
12) Fu Yu
13) Polina Mikhailova
14) Sofia Polcanova
15) Li Xue
16) Li Fen

For full player entries click here and event playing schedule here.

Live streaming!

Table 1
Table 2

The European Rio Olympic Qualification Tournament will be spectacular with all the best European players looking to qualify for the fast approaching Rio Olympics. Who will qualify? Vladimir Samsonov leads the men's singles standings followed closely by Timo Boll. Will Timo find form in this tournament or will young contenders such as Simon Gauzy cause a dent in the draw? Marcos Freitas, Andrej Gacina and Tiago Apolonia follow behind Timo in places 3rd, 4th and 5th seed.

A fantastic event to follow, be sure to get involved on the TTD discussion.

We can use this thread as a means to display all the latest results, videos and news from qualifications for Rio Olympics! What are your predictions from each event.

 

[D_Nizzle]

Some notable absentees (in the men’s draw) – Ruwen Filus for Germany, Adrien Mattenet for France, Monteiro for Portugal. Crazy to think that these guys don’t even get a chance to qualify. Feel especially bad for Mattenet. I know he wasn’t in the world champs French team but I thought they would give him a chance in the Olympics because of his ranking. Crazy to think only 10 Europeans qualify. Olympics is a big deal – but the world champs has got to be the better competition.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

It's not that they won't get a chance to qualify, just that they won't have a chance to qualify in Europe. Monteiro if I'm not mistaken qualified at the World Final Olympic Qualification for London 2012 and also some of the players might be guaranteed the 3rd team spot if two of their teammates qualify. Mattenet wasn't even at the World Championships so I'm assuming he didn't make it through the national team trial they had.

I'm hoping Pitchford gets amongst it

 

[D_Nizzle]

It's not that they won't get a chance to qualify, just that they won't have a chance to qualify in Europe. Monteiro if I'm not mistaken qualified at the World Final Olympic Qualification for London 2012 and also some of the players might be guaranteed the 3rd team spot if two of their teammates qualify. Mattenet wasn't even at the World Championships so I'm assuming he didn't make it through the national team trial they had.

I'm hoping Pitchford gets amongst it

Ahh cheers.didnt realise there was other ways!

 

[TableTennisDaily]

The draw has been done for the first stage (Groups) of the Olympic qualification for Europe.

Men's Singles
Women's Singles

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Ahh cheers.didnt realise there was other ways!

But now that i've seen the entry list and noticed all the younger players in there i'm wondering if perhaps he isn't planning on playing. I'll message him and see if I can find out.

 

[TableTennisDaily]

Live streaming!

Table 1
Table 2

 

[NextLevel]

I think the claim that a country can only send two players is wrong as you can see that Sweden sent 3. It all depends on the country's approach. They still need one more player for the team event.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

I talked to Monteiro briefly last night. The Portugese association have guaranteed him the 3rd team spot but have decided he will not play the qualification. Obviously he's not thrilled with the decision as he would have liked to have tried to qualify for the singles.

 

[NextLevel]

I talked to Monteiro briefly last night. The Portugese association have guaranteed him the 3rd team spot but have decided he will not play the qualification. Obviously he's not thrilled with the decision as he would have liked to have tried to qualify for the singles.

Given how volatile their team is when it comes to performing at big events, that really sucks.

 

[TTLondon2012]

Kalinikos Kreanga vs Marco Rech Daldosso (Group Stage)

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Kreanga's bat sounds...juicy af lol

 

[Xylit]

After seeing (or better hearing) Zoran Primorac playing I'll never complain about Ovtcharov's moaning again. Primorac sounds like close to an orgasm with every chop, serve or anything else. Moreover, cho-ing and pushing to the maximum after every point. Cannot get any more annoying than this.

He is playing like now being down 0-3, though:
http://www.laola1.tv/de-de/livestream/2016-04-13-ettu-olympic-qualification-tournament-table-1-lde

 

[NextLevel]

After seeing (or better hearing) Zoran Primorac playing I'll never complain about Ovtcharov's moaning again. Primorac sounds like close to an orgasm with every chop, serve or anything else. Moreover, cho-ing and pushing to the maximum after every point. Cannot get any more annoying than this.

He is playing like now being down 0-3, though:
http://www.laola1.tv/de-de/livestream/2016-04-13-ettu-olympic-qualification-tournament-table-1-lde

IMO, Primorac is the original argument for banning grunting - Dima and Assar are just sideshows. Maybe my concentration is poor, but nothing annoys me more than someone being silent, then grunting loudly on a shot.

 

[TTLondon2012]

Aleksandar Karakasevic vs Tomas Konecny

 

[Ilia Minkin]

Maybe my concentration is poor, but nothing annoys me more than someone being silent, then grunting loudly on a shot.

I wrote it down in my notebook

 

[NextLevel]

I wrote it down in my notebook

Maybe I forgot the part about me turning green when I am annoyed - you don't want to see me annoyed...

 

[AndySmith]

Drinkhall lost to Machado today but went through and will play Gauzy tomorrow. Tough ask, especially after what happened at the WTTTC.

 

[AndySmith]

Wow - Paul beat Gauzy 4-0. I didn't expect that scoreline, must have been an amazing performance.

 

[TableTennisDaily]

England's Paul Drinkhall vs Russia's Alexey Liventsov.

Host nations Par Gerell is playing Daniel Gorak live here: http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/livestream/2016-04-14-ettu-olympic-qualification-tournament-table-1-len