England won the men’s and women’s titles in stunning style at the 2025 European Team Championships in Wroclaw, Poland.
The men’s team took the European title for the fifth year in a row, and 45th overall, once again consigning France to the runners-up position with a 3-1 victory. For the third year in succession, Switzerland won bronze, courtesy of a 4-0 win against Germany.
England’s women reclaimed the title from last year’s champions Belgium thanks to a 2-1 victory sealed by a superb performance by Jasmine Hutton against world no.13 Nele Gilis-Coll. France were bronze medallists after defeating Scotland 2-0.
For England’s men, sensational 19-year-old debutant Jonah Bryant and world no.33 Curtis Malik were unbeaten all week. It was 25-year-old Malik who set the ball rolling in the final courtesy of a 7-11 11-5 11-2 17-15 win over Auguste Dussord in an occasionally fractious encounter.
Mohamed then faced Victor Crouin in a rematch from last year’s tempestuous duel in Uster, Switzerland. World no.15 Crouin hit back from losing the first to go 2/1 ahead, but former world no.1 ElShorbagy found an extra gear in the fourth to level it up at 2-2. Crouin played terrifically in the decider to take it 7-11 11-6 11-5 4-11 11-6 and level the match.
Bryant then displayed his thrilling movement, racket work and retrieval skills in a 11-4 11-5 3-11 11-8 triumph against Baptiste Masotti, putting England 8-5 ahead in games and meaning Marwan only need to win a single game to clinch the title, which he duly did 11-9 against Gregoire Marche.
Bryant said: “I definitely learned a lot in the first few days playing the lower-ranked teams in the pool stages and I think I peaked for the final. We’ll have a nice celebration now, but not too much as we have the World Championships next week.”
England’s women earlier wrestled the trophy back from Belgium and, just as in Helsinki two years ago, Jasmine Hutton was England’s match-clinching hero on the anchor leg.
Firstly, no.1 Georgina Kennedy was defeated by her close friend Tinne Gilis in a 64-minute epic opener. The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist dug in to win the second game 11-8 after losing the first, but the third slipped away 11-6 and Gilis saved two game balls against her in the fourth to seal it 11-6 8-11 11-6 14-12.
Sarah Jane Perry, making her 100th appearance for her country, soon equalised for England via an 11-6 11-6 11-0 victory over teenager Chloé Crabbé in only 19 minutes.
In a tension-racked finale, Hutton won two very tight opening games on tiebreaks. The third also went deep, and some phenomenal retrieval towards the end from Belgium’s world no.13 sealed it 11-9 to cut Hutton’s lead in half.
The fourth disappeared rapidly as errors crept into Hutton’s game and suddenly we were into a decider. Crucially, Hutton seized an early 3-0 lead in it and Gilis-Coll couldn’t get a foothold thereafter.
Hutton’s 12-10 12-10 9-11 3-11 11-6 win was sealed with a Gilis-Coll error and England’s Brighton-born star took a few moments at the tin to let the achievement sink in.
Hutton described the experience as “torture!” She added: “Nele is an incredible athlete but she’s also a master fighter. Even though I went 2/0 up I knew it was still going to be a massive dogfight at that point. She made it so tough.
“To come through in the fifth after dropping the two games before that was really impressive on my behalf, to re-set and become more composed again.”
Asked to rank the match among her all-time performances, she said: “Joint top with Helsinki a few years ago. That was my second Europeans and it felt like I won it for the team [by playing the decider] so this is up there with my career highlights.”
In Division 2, there was a Dutch double as their men’s and women’s teams beat Poland and Ukraine respectively, with all four promoted to Division 1 (for the first time ever in Poland’s case).
In a raucous atmosphere with a partisan home crowd, the Dutch men’s tense win over the host nation was sealed by young Guido Lindner against Jakub Pytlowany. Afterwards, Lindner said: ““That was so tough, so tough! Before the last rally I was cramping. I went to wipe my hand on the wall and I was shaking. Luckily I had five points to play with at that point, as I was so scared.”
The Netherlands’ women’s match winner against Ukraine was Fleur Maas, who said: “I was so nervous in the previous matches that I wanted to be able to be as composed as possible. I’m super happy that we got to win this tournament.”
Ireland and Israel were the teams relegated from men’s Division 1, with Italy and Romania finishing bottom of men’s Division 2, thus returning to the third tier for 2026.
Finland and Demark went down from women’s Division 1, while Slovenia and Norway made the drop from Division 2 to the bottom rung for next year.