Irina Viktorovna Kotichina

Irina Wiktorowna Kotichina ( Russian Ирина Викторовна Котихина ; born December 17, 1980 in Gorki ) is a Russian table tennis player . She played temporarily in the German Bundesliga and won bronze at the 2007 European Championship .

Career

Kotichina started playing table tennis when she was eight. She became a defender . At the European Youth Championships she won the title with the Russian team in 1995 and 1998, and in 1995 she reached the final in doubles with Natalia Lapteva.

In 1998 she left the club Nitel Novgorod and moved to the German Bundesliga club Rot-Weiß Klettham-Erding . In the following season 1999/2000 she played for Team Galaxis Lübeck , then for the TTFC Burgwedel . She later returned to Russia and achieved national success with Nizhny Novgorod.

She married in 1999 and became a mother in late 2003. Since her husband was often away on business, raising children left her less time to train compared to other table tennis professionals.

European Championship 2007

The 2007 European Championship was the first important tournament where it appeared again internationally. Therefore, experts were surprised that she finished second with the team and won the bronze medal in the individual. With victories over Mie Skov (Denmark), Ekaterina Ntoulaki (Greece), Li Qianbing (Austria) and Nicole Struse (Germany) she reached the semifinals. Here she was defeated by the later European champion Li Jiao (Netherlands).

Further international appearances

At the European Championships in 2008 she reached the quarter-finals in doubles. So far, she has participated in world championships four times, namely in 2001 , 2006 , 2007 and 2008 . She was also represented at the 2008 Olympic Games .

Currently (June 2009) she is ranked 90th in the ITTF world rankings . Her best placement since 2000 was 69th place (June 2007, February and March 2008).

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
RUS	European Championship	2008	St. Petersburg	RUS		Quarter finals
RUS	European Championship	2007	Belgrade	SRB	Semifinals		Quarter finals	2
RUS	European Youth Championship (Cadets)	1995	The hague	NED		silver		1
RUS	European Youth Championship (Juniors)	1998	Norcia	ITA				1
RUS	Olympic games	2008	Beijing	CHN	last 128
RUS	Pro tour	2008	Velenje	SVN	Semifinals	gold
RUS	Pro tour	2007	Toulouse	FRA	last 64
RUS	Pro tour	2007	St. Petersburg	RUS	last 64	Quarter finals
RUS	Pro tour	2007	Chiba	JPN	last 64	last 16
RUS	Pro tour	2007	Doha	QAT	last 64
RUS	Pro tour	2007	Zagreb	HRV	last 32
RUS	Pro tour	2006	Bayreuth	GER	last 16	last 16
RUS	Pro tour	2006	St. Petersburg	RUS	last 32	Quarter finals
RUS	Pro tour	2006	Belgrade	SRB	last 32
RUS	Pro tour	2006	Doha	QAT	last 32	last 16
RUS	Pro tour	2006	Zagreb	HRV		last 16
RUS	Pro tour	2005	St. Petersburg	RUS	silver	last 16
RUS	Pro tour	2005	Zagreb	HRV	last 64
RUS	Pro tour	2004	catfish	AUT	last 64
RUS	Pro tour	2004	Aarhus	THE		last 16
RUS	World Championship	2008	Guangzhou	CHN				16
RUS	World Championship	2007	Zagreb	HRV	last 64	last 32	last 128
RUS	World Championship	2006	Bremen	GER				13
RUS	World Championship	2001	Osaka	JPN	last 128	Agony	no participants	23

literature

• Rahul Nelson: Woe if the saw comes , table tennis magazine , 2007/4 p.22

Web links

• Irina Wiktorowna Kotichina biography on the website of the table tennis world association ittf.com (English) (accessed on August 5, 2011)
• Short biography at peoples.ru (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DTS magazine , 1998/8 p.12 + 1999/8 p.22 + 2000/6 p.22
2. ↑ Butterfly News, November 2005, p. 5.
3. ↑ http://www.ittfranking.com/cgi-bin/ttplayer.cgi?number=104845&lang=0&format=detailed4
4. ↑ Irina Viktorovna Kotichina Results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed September 11, 2011)