The European U13 Championships will take place in Kosta, Sweden, from 24 to 28 September. This is the third edition of the tournament, with four players supported by compass attending.

As competition in table tennis increases, the International Youth Championships are also opening up to younger and younger age groups. The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) established the European U13 Championships as part of its tournament programme in 2023, following a pilot event the previous year. Following events in Croatia (Zagreb) and Romania (Bucharest), the competition is now heading to Kosta in Sweden. Despite being a small community of fewer than 1,000 people, Kosta boasts a table tennis club that competes in the top national leagues for both men and women The town also has a large arena, which was privately built by Torsten Jansson, a former table tennis player who owns and runs a company called New Wave Group.

From 24 to 28 September, the best European youngsters born in 2012 or later will gather in Kosta. A total of 78 boys and 76 girls will participate in the singles event, as well as competing in mixed team and mixed doubles events. Four compass-supported players are among them: Ladimir Mayorov (Spain), Joel Isaksson (Sweden) and Jeffrey Wei (Germany) in the boys’ category, and Adela Brhelová (Czechia) in the girls’ category.

compass has enjoyed success at previous European U13 championships. Danilo Faso (Italy) won the singles event in 2023, as did Görkem Öcal (Türkiye) and Siri Benjegård (Sweden) in 2024. There will be exciting times in Kosta next week, and hopefully the compass quartet can win some medals.