A spirited recovery against Italy, secured Poland second place in Group A in the women’s event at the World Team Championships in Moscow on the morning of Thursday 27th May 2010.

Poland finished behind China as a result of a momentous fight back with the Italians being doomed to fourth spot.

Italy now plays in the competition for places 13 to 24.

Nothing went right for Poland at the start of the contest against Italy; Xu Jie was beaten in four games by Nikoleta Stefanova, whilst Li Qian had few answers against Wenling Tan Monfardini, losing in three straight games.

Trailing by two matches to nil, Natalia Partyka sparked the Polish recovery.

She overcame Debora Vivarelli in three straight games, in four games Li Qian defeated Nikoleta Stefanova and Xu Jie accounted for Wenling Tan Monfardini to complete the recovery. Similarly, she won in four games.

Second spot in the group was thus secured for Poland with Italy finishing in fourth place behind Croatia. They concluded their first stage matches with a three-one victory over Austria, who without a win, finished in sixth place in the group.

Cornelia Vaida was the mainstay of the Croatian win beating both Sarah Kainz and Martina Petzner with Tamara Boros adding the one further success by overcoming Petzner. The one Austrian win came from Li Qiangbing against Andrea Bakula in the third match of the duel.

China finished as group winners, the trio of Liu Shiwen, Li Xiaoxia and Ding Ning continuing their policy of whitewashing the opposition by overcoming the English outfit of Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Hannah Hicks by three matches to nil.

England concluded the first stage in fifth spot.

Top place for China and also top place for their compatriots, Hong Kong China; after beating third seeds Korea one day earlier they concluded their first stage fixtures with victory over Ukraine in Group C; a group where all the final matches were concluded by three matches to nil.

Represented by Lau Sui Fei, Zhang Rui and Yu Kwok See, Hong Kong overcame the Ukraine trio of Ganna Gapanova, Tetyana Sorochynska and Irina Motsyk whilst in similar style, Korea Republic defeated North Korea.

Kim Kyung Ah beat Han Hye Song, Park Mi Young overcame Kim Jong and Dang Ye Seo accounted for Kim Hye Song.

Notably the Korean Republic team had a large band of supporters who applauded their team to the hilt with rhythmical noise emanating from the inflated clappers.

It was a far cry from Manchester in 1997 when Korea Republic and North Korea had met; neither team applauded explaining that such actions would be disrespectful.

How times change.

The result meant that Korea Republic finished in second place with North Korea in fourth place ahead of Ukraine and France.

Hungary clinched third place in the group by overcoming France; the outfit of Petra Lovas, Georgina Pota and Szandra Pergel recording an impressive three-nil win over the French team of Aurore Dessaint, Alice Abbat and Audrey Mattenet to bring their first stage contests to a conclusion.