Olympiacos keeps unbeaten run, Panathinaikos ends 52-year title drought

Greek club table tennis delivered a study in extremes at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus: one powerhouse extended a dynasty, while another finally cracked a title drought that had lasted more than half a century. Olympiacos SFP wrapped up the 2025/26 men’s A1 National League playoffs on May 21 and 22 by taking a fifth consecutive national title, and Panathinaikos AO followed on the women’s side with its first championship since 1974.

Olympiacos’ latest triumph underlined just how entrenched the club has become at the top of the men’s game. The team finished the season unbeaten across 17 matches, matched the spotless run it produced in 2024/25, and now owns 11 championships in A1 League history and 19 overall in the men’s top division. That kind of consistency is more than a run of trophies; it is a statement of control in a league where rivals keep changing and Olympiacos keeps winning. The title squad featured Truls MÖREGÅRDH, Giorgos STAMATOUROS, Giannis SGOUROPOULOS, Tomislav PUCAR, Tasos RINIOTIS, Dimitris SOTIROPOULOS and Petros MORALIS, with Giorgos CHRISTOFORAKIS again guiding the group.

MÖREGÅRDH’s presence also says something about the club’s pull. Olympiacos has continued to attract elite international talent, and that matters in a sport where one major signing can shift both results and perception. Olympiacos’ men were already the benchmark in Greece, but the addition of a player of MÖREGÅRDH’s stature reinforced the idea that the club operates on a broader European scale, not just a domestic one.

If Olympiacos represented continuity, Panathinaikos women brought the release that comes when a long wait finally ends. Led by Katerina TOLIOU, Nikoleta STEFANOVA, Ioanna GERASIMATOU, Ana TOFANT and Vasiliki TZIMOU, and coached by Nikos ZERVAS, Panathinaikos won the women’s title for only the fourth time in club history and the first time in 52 years. The team suffered only one playoff defeat, and that loss came against Olympiacos without affecting the final standings, a small reminder of who still set the pace in the division even as Panathinaikos seized the championship it had spent generations chasing.

The contrast between the two titles captured the state of Greek club table tennis. Olympiacos kept tightening its grip on the men’s scene with another undefeated run, while Panathinaikos women turned a long-standing near-miss into a defining breakthrough. That tension between dominance and arrival is what gave these playoffs their force, especially in a sport that had already drawn national attention in March, when the Greek National Championships brought 90 athletes from 39 clubs to Piraeus and aired live on ERT and ERTFLIX.