In his twenty three years Michal BENEŠ (born 20 March 1994) has experience to give away. The former cadet and junior representative of the Czech Republic and a medallist from Junior European Championship belongs to the pillars of the ExtraleagueHavířov team. Being a student of VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, he excelled two years ago at the European Universities Championship in Geneva by winning two gold medals. This year in Olomouc the Havířov table tennis player will face a hard title challenge.

How does top-level sport match with university studies?

The university is always willing to help me by individual study programme, so it is no problem to manage the training sessions and the school at the same time. It is worse though during the exam period when there is a pile of work to do and I don´t know which to start first, especially when there is many matches to play.

With Havířov, you have passed the start at play-off of the Czech Extraleague, where you missed the semi-finals berth by a hair´s breadth. What did the series with TTC Františkovy Lázně look like?

FrantiškovyLázněwas for sure the scheduled front-runner and the team proved it clearly in the first two matches. However, home environment was a great advantage for us and we showed our rivals that they were not to get it for free. Otherwise, it was an excellent experience for me and all matches were accompanied with a great atmosphere.

You won´t be a newbie at the upcoming tournament in Olomouc. You won two gold medals at the previous Universities Championship. Where in your career do you rank this success?

I would definitely rank it among my biggest achievements. Even though it is an academic championship of Europe, those medals are priceless to me. 

This year the European Universities Championship is played “at home” in Olomouc. Are you looking forward to this Olomouc tournament?

But I definitely look forward to the championship, I like Olomouc very much as a city, and at this championship everyone is always very friendly, which creates an excellent and unique atmosphere.