Kalinikos Kreanga (born March 8, 1972) is a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(formerly Romanian)
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.
Born as Călin Creangă, he chose to defect from
Communist-ruled Romania at the age of 17 (with his father) while he was participating in the
European Table Tennis Youth Championships in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
in 1989.
Born in
Bistriţa,
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 ...
, Kreanga started to play table tennis at the age of 7. His first coach was Gheorghe Bozga, who would later discover
Mihaela Steff.
While in Luxembourg, he received an offer to play in Greece, so he decided to move there. Being a minor, he quickly acquired Greek citizenship, and changed his name to Kalinikos Kreanga.
He has been one of the dominant European table tennis players since the beginning of the 1990s, and uses the
shakehand
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 ...
grip to hold the racket. His favorite offensive weapons seem to be the forehand
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 ...
and an incredibly strong backhand topspin. His backhand topspin is regarded as one of the most devastating in the world, not limited by its unorthodox technique.
In 2004 he has reached No 7 of World Ranking.
Team history
* A.C. Zografou (Greece) (until 1995)
* Finower TTC (1995/96; 2. Bundesliga,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
)
* Royal Villette Charleroi, (
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
), since 1996)
* TTC Weinheim (2.BL, Germany)
* TTF Ochsenhausen (Germany)
* Montpellier TT (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
* Hennebont (France)
Results
Bronze medal in the mixed doubles competition at the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
,
Chiba City
is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It sits about east of the centre of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. The city became a government-designated city in 1992. In June 2019, its population was 979,768, with a population density of 3,605 people p ...
, 1991.
Winner of the
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
in mixed doubles (1992) and men's doubles (1994).
Runner-up in men's singles (2002).
Bronze medal in the singles competition at the World Championships,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, 2003.
Runner-up at the
Men's World Cup in 2003 and 2004.
Winner of the
Europe Top-12
The Europe Top 16, also known as the Europe Top 16 Cup and previously known as the Europe Top 12, is a table tennis tournament organised annually by the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), featuring the highest-ranked players in Europe.
History
...
, 2011.
See also
*
List of Eastern Bloc defectors
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kreanga, Kalinikos
Greek male table tennis players
Romanian male table tennis players
1972 births
category:Sportspeople from Bistrița
Romanian defectors
Romanian emigrants to Greece
Greek people of Romanian descent
Living people
Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic table tennis players of Greece
Table tennis players at the 2015 European Games
European Games competitors for Greece
Romanian emigrants to Luxembourg