Well, somebody had to be "Europe's Last Dictatorship." Unfortunately for Belarus, they are the ones left holding the bag. While the rest of Eastern Europe has adopted some form of representative democracy in the three decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, Belarus has yet to feel the winds of change. Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' self-appointed President for Life, has maintained his power through a combination of brutal repression and flagrant election-rigging. After the latest farcical vote, when the widely reviled dictator supposedly received 80% of the nation's votes in 2020, both the EU and USA ceased to recognize his presidency. Thousands of Belarusian protesters have bravely risked imprisonment and torture to demand true democracy. While Belarus as a nation suffers political unrest, the proud Belarusians may take some comfort in table tennis, where there is always the capacity for a change in leadership. Such dynamic displays of democracy were witnessed at the 2021 National Championship of the Republic of Belarus, held over the last four days of January in Minsk. In the women's singles, 26-year-old Katsiaryna Baravok claimed her fist national championship. The world #268 has spent her career in the shadows of Belarus' top three women, led by world #101 Daria Trigolos. Baravok swept second-ranked Belarusian and world #104 Nadezhda Bogdanova in the semifinals before giving 15-year-old upstart Vera Volkova, world #898, the same brusque treatment in the finals. "Every athlete dreams of becoming a champion, of course, this was my old dream," said Baravok, who did not drop a game in the tournament. "I went to it for a long time, worked a lot. For each match, I came out with a certain tactic and adhered to it to the end." In the men's singles, the conspicuous absence of world #27 Vladimir Samsonov meant it was anyone's game. In the end, the deciding game went to 19-year-old Vladislav Rukletsov. On paper, the world #346 Rukletsov, listed fifth in the nation, was an even longer shot for the title than world #268 Baravok was in the women's draw. Despite the long odds, Rukletsov faced the stiffest competition from his own hand. In the final against world #1,030 Andrey Milovanov, Rukletsov fell behind 1-3 before taking a medical time out to stretch his strained hand. After ten minutes, he recovered to win three straight games and his first national championship. "In 2019, I was already in the final of the National Championship, but I lost to Aleksandr Khanin," recalled the victorious Rukletsov. "This time I really wanted to win. I understood that I was in good shape and if I show my best game, it would bring success." As the national table tennis championships undergo a changing of the guard, so too can the national titles held by those who did not legitimately win them. We look forward to looking back on "Europe's Last Dictatorship," and welcoming the world's newest democracy.

More at ETTU