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.
The Romanian team lost in the semifinals to the German pair of Benedikt Duda/Nina Mittelham, 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 14-12).
Szocs also won bronze in the women’s doubles event with Elizabeta Samara, securing Romania’s second medal in the event.
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).
In the European semifinal, Elizabeta Samara and Bernadette Szocs faced the pair Tatiana Kukulkova (Slovakia)/Natalia Bajor (Poland), the #5 seeds.
“The 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),” said the Romanian Table Tennis Federation on Facebook.
In the women's singles event, Romania has three representatives in the round of 16: Bernadette Szocs, Andreea Dragoman, and Elena Zaharia, according to the Romanian Table Tennis Federation's website.
In the men's singles event, both remaining Romanian players lost in the round of 32. Eduard Ionescu was defeated by Finland's Benedek Olah 3-4 (8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 6-11), while Iulian Chiriță lost his match against Sweden's Anton Kallberg 2-4 (8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11).