Croatia wins the ICO Nations Cup Regional tournament for CE Europe
Regional tournament for Central-Eastern Europe was played in beautiful Hungarian town of Tolna last weekend, where 4 nations were playing against each other.
As Slovenia is already qualified for the Final tournament as last year’s ICO Nations Cup Champion, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary were hoping to secure the right to join Slovenia in fighting for the glory at the Final tournament. Host nation Hungary started strong against a spirited Serbian team with a clean-sheet 6:0 victory. Meanwhile, Croatia had a real battle going on with Slovenian B-team, which ended in Croatia’s favour by the tighest of margins (3:3 in matches, 8:8 in sets, 229:212 in points). Spurred on by their first win, Croatia’s Dasen Jardas, Ivor Ilić and Paula Barković showed another excellent performance against Hungary with both of their male players winning all three single matches, thus securing a final 4:2 win. Slovenia won 5:1 against Serbia and then lost 2:4 to Hungary in the battle for the second place. Croatia confirmed first place and the right to play at the Final tournament in Brno, Czech Republic, on the 8th October 2016 with a convincing 6:0 win against Hungary.
Results: 1. Croatia, 2. Hungary, 3. Slovenia, 4. Serbia.