Rickard Persson: Truls is not even close - yet Sweden is having its best EC in 30 years

Anton Källberg had the chance to take his biggest title in his career in Sunday's EC final in Ljubljana, Slovenia. But there was a 3-4 loss in a set against the French prodigy Felix Lebrun, who may very well be world number one shortly. Källberg pressured the Frenchman, but folded completely in the seventh set (1–11).

Heavy, especially as Källberg together with Kristian Karlsson also fell in the doubles final against the brothers Felix and Alexis Lebrun.

Nevertheless, Sweden's EC result, counted in number of medals, is the best since 1996: Two silvers and also a bronze in mixed through Kristian Karlsson and Stina Källberg.

In 2000 Peter Karlsson won gold in singles, in 2013 Li Fen won the women's class and in 2022 Mattias Karlsson and Kristian Karlsson won the men's doubles. But those were the only medals in those years.

Also in 2018, there were three medals, but then one silver and two bronze.

World number four Truls Möregårdh is the one who personifies the latest ping pong boom in Sweden. With his silver medals in the World Cup and the Olympics, his spectacular playing style and a specially designed racket, he has helped to fill the ping pong halls with young (and considerably older) players. Everyone is talking about Truls.

Therefore, it is a bit piquant that he was not close to a medal during the European Championships in Ljubljana.

He already went out in the round of 16 against the Norwegian stunner Borgar Haug and early also in doubles together with Elias Ranefur. A real failure for Möregårdh, who is mentioned as a potential world number one by the legendary J-O Waldner.

But Swedish table tennis is not just Truls Möregårdh, far from it. The latest rocket is Elias Ranefur, who has steadily climbed the rankings. The double world champion Mattias Karlsson would also have been in the EC - if he hadn't injured a finger after making the bed just before the EC.

And then Anton Källberg. He had his public breakthrough when he took Sweden to the Olympic team final in Paris 2024. after the victory in a decisive thriller against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto.

This year he has had a tough year on the world tour with many early losses. He has gone down to 29th place in the ranking. A slightly misleading ranking in that he is one of the few players who can challenge anyone at the top of the world on a good day.

In the EC, he was actually close to going out already in the first round against the Russian Nikita Artemenko, where he won by a narrow 4–3 in a set. Another proof that in sports championships it is often good to get tangled up at the beginning of the tournaments.

Compare with Truls Möregårdh who won his first two matches 4-0 in sets, but disappeared once it started to matter.

However, Källberg still misses that really big success. But it won't be easy to reach the very top even in the EC in the coming years. The brothers Felix and Alexis Lebrun, aged 20 and 23, continue to develop.