Dorin Giurgiuca (December 8, 1944,

Mihalț Mihalț (german: Michelsdorf; hu, Mihálcfalva) is a commune located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulga ...

, Alba County,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

- June 4, 2013) was a Romanian international

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player and coach.

Table tennis career

Moving at a very young age with his family to

Dej Dej (; hu, Dés; german: Desch, Burglos; yi, דעעש ''Desh'') is a municipality in Transylvania, Romania, north of Cluj-Napoca, in Cluj County. It lies where the river Someșul Mic meets the river Someșul Mare. The city administers four vill ...

, he started playing table tennis when he was 14. After he was discovered by Farkas Paneth, he joined CSM Cluj, where he stayed during all his active career, and with which he would win eleven national championships and five

European Club Cup of Champions The European Club Cup of Champions, often known as the European Cup or ECCC, was a table tennis competition for European club teams. It was organized by the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) annually for men's and women's teams. It was first held i ...

. At the European Youth Championship in Bled, Yugoslavia, in 1962, he won a gold medal. In 1964, after winning the singles competition of the German, Austrian, and English Open tournaments, he was ranked second in Europe by the

European Table Tennis Union The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) is the governing body of the sport of table tennis in Europe, and is the only authority recognised for this purpose by the International Table Tennis Federation. The ETTU deals with all matters relating to t ...

. A lefty and a master of the

topspin In ball sports, topspin or overspin is a property of a ball that rotates forwards as it is moving. Topspin on a ball propelled through the air imparts a downward force that causes the ball to drop, due to its interaction with the air (see Magnu ...

, he became Romanian singles champion in 1967 and 1970. A graduate of the Sports Academy in Cluj, after he retired from active play he became a coach. He died of

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

Achievements

*national champion every year of his career in different competitions (1961-1974) *twice national champion in the singles competition (1967, 1970) *European youth champion (1962) *

Balkan Games The Balkan Athletics Championships or Balkan Games () is a regional athletics competition held between nations from the Balkans and organized by Balkan Athletics. The first games were held in Athens in 1929, and the most recent were being held in ...

champion in the singles, doubles and mixed competitions (1965) *bronze medalist in the mixed competition (with

Maria Alexandru Maria Alexandru (née Golopența) (born 30 December 1939 in Plugova) is a former Romanian table tennis player. Table tennis career From 1957 to 1980 she won several medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the Table Tennis European Champio ...

1967 World Table Tennis Championships The 1967 World Table Tennis Championships were held at the Johanneshovs Isstadion in Stockholm from April 11 to April 21, 1967. During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese sports professionals were denounced as 'Sprouts of Revisionism' and were de ...

*silver medalist at the European Championship, (with

), France, 1968 *Winner of the

English Open The English Open was a professional golf tournament held in England. First played in 1988, it was an annual event on the European Tour until 2002. After several aborted attempts at reviving the tournament, it returned to the tour schedule in 20 ...

title.

Awards

*Master of Sport, 1962 *Honored Master of Sport, 1994

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giurgiuca, Dorin 1944 births 2013 deaths Romanian male table tennis players Sportspeople from Alba County Deaths from cirrhosis World Table Tennis Championships medalists