Chirita and Hursey win European U21 mixed doubles title

Iulian Chirita and Anna Hursey converted top seeding into a European Under 21 mixed doubles title in Cluj-Napoca, beating Germany’s Wim Verdonschot and Josephina Neumann 3-1 in the final. The Romanian-Welsh pair took control early, won the first two games 11-8 and 11-5, absorbed a German response at 7-11, then closed out the match 11-9 to finish a partnership that had looked sharp all week.

The result carried extra weight because it came on home soil for Chirita, at the ROMSTAL European Under 21 Championships staged from 17 to 21 June 2026 in Cluj-Napoca, the city that has now become part of his junior career story. It also gave Hursey, one of Europe’s best-known young names, another major continental title and further underlined how far she has carried Wales on the international stage. Table Tennis England said she was European Under-21 champion once again, and that the mixed doubles gold added to the World Junior silver she and Chirita won in 2025.

This title was built on clarity of roles rather than national continuity. Chirita and Hursey entered as the No. 1 seeds and played like a pair that had already solved the hardest part of mixed doubles, which is not just shot selection but trust under pressure. ETTU captured that dynamic in their semifinal reaction, where the pair said, “If one of us makes a mistake, the other can help and calm things down.” That balance showed in the final, especially after Verdonschot and Neumann pulled a game back to briefly threaten a shift in momentum.

The route to the final made the championship match more revealing. Chirita and Hursey had swept past Slovenia’s Brin Vovk and Sara Tokic 3-0 in the semifinals, while Verdonschot and Neumann had needed four games to beat Andrei Istrate and Nicole Arlia. The Germans, seeded No. 9, still made history by reaching their first-ever mixed doubles final and claiming Germany’s first medal in the event at the European Under 21 Championships, a breakthrough that came in a tournament inaugurated in 2017 in Sochi.

For Chirita, the gold marked his first European U21 title in Cluj-Napoca. Romanian coverage also framed the duo as the reigning U19 world runners-up from 2025, which made this win feel less like an isolated run and more like the next step in a partnership already producing results at the highest junior level.