Romanian table tennis players Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles event at the 2026 European Individual Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Thursday, October 15.<\/p>\n
The Romanian team lost in the semifinals to the German pair of Benedikt Duda\/Nina Mittelham, 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 14-12).<\/p>\n
Szocs also won bronze in the women\u2019s doubles event with Elizabeta Samara, securing Romania\u2019s second medal in the event.<\/p>\n
The road to the podium included three victories against the pairs Dominika Wiltschkova\/Ema Labosova (Slovakia), 3-1 (11-4, 11-4, 12-14, 11-7); Lea Rakovac\/Hana Arapovic (Croatia), 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-6); and Ying Han\/Sabine Winter (Germany), 3-1 (11-9, 12-10, 7-11, 11-4).<\/p>\n
In the European semifinal, Elizabeta Samara and Bernadette Szocs faced the pair Tatiana Kukulkova (Slovakia)\/Natalia Bajor (Poland), the #5 seeds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first set was evenly matched and decided by a narrow margin, but their opponents also prevailed in the next two sets, and the Romanian players finished the competition on the third step of the podium, after a 0-3 defeat (11-13, 6-11, 7-11),\u201d said the Romanian Table Tennis Federation on Facebook.<\/p>\n