Table tennis player Bernadette Szocs wins silver at World Championships, Romania’s first since 1993

Well-known Romanian table tennis player Bernadette Szocs made history on Sunday, May 25, after winning the silver medal at the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Szocs and Sofia Polcanova (Austria), the reigning European vice champions, won five matches in women’s doubles in Qatar. They faced off against undefeated Chinese pair Wang Manyu / Kuai Man in the final, and lost 0-3.

“This silver medal is Bernadette’s first at the senior level and makes her the first Romanian player to win a world medal in women’s doubles in several decades!” Romania’s Olympic Council said in a post on Facebook.

Bernadette Szocs, 30, and Sofia Polcanova are the first athletes from Europe to play in a women’s doubles world final since 1977. The last Romanian woman to medal at the World Individual Championships was Otilia Bădescu, who won bronze in 1993.

Asian players usually dominate the top of the ranking of female table tennis players.

Last year, Bernadette Szocs won two silver medals at the European Individual Table Tennis Championships in Linz, Austria, first at the women’s doubles event and then at the singles event.

The Romanian athlete is currently ranked 12th worldwide in the ITTF Table Tennis Rankings.

(Photo source: Comitetul Olimpic si Sportiv Roman on Facebook)