European Petanque Championships in Loutraki: Dates and Format
Loutraki hosts the European Petanque Championships, juniors and espoirs on 3-6 October, then women on 8-11 October, in triples and precision shooting.
Eight days of play at SPORTCAMP Loutraki
At 08:30 on Saturday 3 October, the opening ceremony starts the 14th juniors and espoirs Europeans at SPORTCAMP, a multisport complex about five kilometres outside town. The last medals go out on Tuesday 6 October. After a two-day pause, the women take over the same grounds from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 October. Greece's coast is roughly 80 kilometres west of Athens, about an hour by road from the airport. Each category plays two competitions, triples and precision shooting, so every day mixes both.
Five titles are in play in each discipline: junior girls and boys (under 18), espoirs women and men (under 23), and senior women. The field is large. Ahead of the event, 17 federations had entered junior girls, 18 junior boys, 12 espoirs women and 20 espoirs men. The senior women's event counts 32.
Programme, day by day
| Day | Events |
|---|---|
| Sat 3 Oct | Opening ceremony at 08:30; precision shooting qualification and repechage (juniors, espoirs) |
| Sun 4 Oct | Triples: five timed Swiss-system rounds in all four age categories |
| Mon 5 Oct | Shooting quarter-finals; triples quarter-finals and semi-finals; Nations Cup rounds |
| Tue 6 Oct | Nations Cup finals; shooting semi-finals and final; triples finals; medal ceremony |
| Thu 8 Oct | Women: shooting qualification and repechage from 08:30 |
| Fri 9 Oct | Women: triples qualification, five timed Swiss-system rounds |
| Sat 10 Oct | Women: shooting quarter-finals and semi-finals; triples round of 16 and quarter-finals |
| Sun 11 Oct | Women: triples semi-finals and final; shooting final; Nations Cup final; medal ceremony |
All times in the programme are Greek local time, one hour ahead of Germany. Triples qualifying runs over five timed Swiss-system rounds in both blocks. Precision shooting has its own qualification and repechage on the first day of each block, and the Nations Cup is played alongside the individual titles, with its finals on the last day.
Germany arrives with a defending champion
The German federation named 20 players for the trip. Its espoirs women are the team to beat on their own record: they won the 2025 European title in Benejúzar, with Ella Koch and Mercedes Strokosch among the champions. Celine Grauer and Silvana Lichte, part of that winning group, have since moved up to the senior women's squad. Germany finished ninth in the women's triples in 2024.
Other names stand out on the German list. Maria Hein, a junior bronze medallist at the 2024 Europeans, took a world title in mixed precision shooting in 2025. Oskar Fitz is the reigning German champion in espoirs triples and in shooting. Mark-Oliver Fitz, the federation's vice-president for youth, puts team spirit next to skill and a little luck among the keys to a medal.
Where to watch
Two YouTube channels carry the matches: the one run by the German federation and the one run by the European confederation. The event has its own website, with the official programme. Both blocks start early: the first session of each opens at 08:30 Greek time, which is 07:30 in Germany, so viewers in western Europe should plan for a morning start.
