Sweden took gold after 21 years of waiting

Truls Möregårdh great hero

MALMÖ. Most of the champions against the dominant of the 2000s in table tennis EC.

Then Sweden went out and beat Germany 3–1 in the team final in Malmö after Truls Möregård offered ping-pong sweets.

– I played fantastic table tennis, he told SVT.

The Swedish men had not won the team European table tennis championship since 2002 after dominating for two decades with their golden generation led by Jan-Ove Waldner and Jörgen Persson.

Instead, they had seen Germany dominate in Europe and win nine of the last eleven team golds.

But in Malmö, Sweden took back the throne on Sunday evening.

The icon turned and won against Falck

Poster name Truls Möregårdh gave Sweden a dream start against the Germans (who, however, are missing several of their top names in the world rankings in this team EC) when he pulverized Benedikt Duda 3-0 in the set and fired up the approximately 3,000 spectators in Malmö Arena.

– I played fantastic table tennis. They were looking for an offensive start so nice to crack it from the start, the 21-year-old told SVT.

In the second match, Mattias Falck first had 2–0 in the set and 8–7 in the third set against Timo Boll and then a match point in the fifth and decisive set before the legend was able to turn around and win it 12–10.

Then Sweden’s stable third player, Kristian Karlsson, went out and beat the Germans’ third Kay Stumper after a well-timed timeout in the fifth and deciding set that gave Karlsson six straight points and the victory.

Fantastic duels

Now the future was waiting against the past(?) in European table tennis: the 21-year-old Möregårdh, with two team bronze medals in his EC CV, against twice as old Boll, with seven team golds and eight singles golds from the EC.

Boll, who lost the final with Germany when Sweden won its last team gold in 2002, again fell behind 2–0 in the set but was able to take another match to the tiebreaker.

There, however, he had to face Möregårdh, who went straight to 7–2 and secured the Swedish gold via an 11–5 victory in the decisive set.

Möregårdh, who only lost a single game in the entire tournament, had the arena boiling when he won a pair of stunning mid-game hitting duels that left Boll shaking his head.

Sweden is finally European team champion again.