Sofia Polcanova speaks of a good start to 2024.
By this, the European table tennis champion not only means her second place at the European Top 16 tournament recently in Montreux (Fra), thanks to which she defended a lot of world ranking points, but above all her health condition.
“For the first time in a long time she was able to train without injury,” says Günther Renner. The club boss of Linz AG Froschberg is clearly happy about this, also because his team will be hosting Saint Quentin (Fra) on Wednesday (7 p.m.) for the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League at the Sportpark Lissfeld (second leg on February 4th).
The Austrian subscription champions saw in the previous season that they would need a fit Polcanova when they lost 3-0 in the preliminary round in Saint Quentin.
Even an upgrade to business class didn’t help
So it’s just right that Polcanova has recently returned to her top form after months of ups and downs. However, as the 29-year-old, who has had several operations on her knee and hip due to excessive or incorrect strain, shows, the injury concerns are not completely off the table.
The knee continues to swell and water collects in it. You learn to deal with it and live with it, says the 22nd in the world rankings: “The games aren’t so much the problem, it’s more about sitting for long periods of time while traveling.”
She also noticed that when she flew to Doha for the WTT tournament at the beginning of January, where she reached the double semi-finals with Bernadette Szöcs (Rome). “For the return flight I upgraded to business class (for more legroom, note). It didn’t help, my knee was still thick again.”
Even though traveling is causing her more problems at the moment, without all the games she probably wouldn’t have gotten into the position her body is in right now.
She’s not thinking about cutting anything from her mammoth program. “I believe that in mixed doubles (with Robert Gardos) we have a very good chance of qualifying for the Olympics. And in doubles (with Szöcs) we have a good chance at the home European Championships again,” says the Linz native. “I have no choice, everyone needs me. And I need everyone.”
Wels won the European Cup thriller
The men from Felbermayr Wels have already won the first leg: thanks to Jiri Martinko’s victory in the deciding set, the Messestadt team won the first Europe Cup quarter-final at Sokah Hoboken (Bel) 3-2. The second leg took place today in Wels (6 p.m.).
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Reinhold Pühringer
Sports editor
Reinhold Pühringer
