Great Britain returns home with a bronze medal courtesy of the Ladies team event featuring Victoria Bromley (Wolverhampton), Jessica Bromley (Wolverhampton) and Jacqueline Smith (Essex) at the 5th INAS-FID European Table Tennis Championship in Ciechanow, Poland. In a tight, hard fought match the British Ladies lost narrowly in the fifth game to the eventual gold medal winners and hosts Poland. Spain came out on top in the men’s singles competition where GB gold medal hopeful Adam Thompson (Cheshire) was defeated by Spanish and world number 1 ranked player Eduardo Cuesta.
Despite there not being any British gold’s, Team Manager Dennis Beech was pleased with the performance ‘The ladies team did exceptionally well to gain a bronze medal in a competition where the standard has been very high, indeed I would say standards have improved by about 30 percent on the previous tournament. With more hard work and dedication I’m sure we can build on this performance to compete well in future tournaments’
Also attending the tournament were the British Table Tennis Association for People with a Disability (BTTAD) who were observing the performance of British athletes in anticipation of the London 2012 Paralympic selection process. UK Sports Association Chief Executive Tracey McCillen enthuses ‘Congratulations to our medal winners – its always rewarding to see another British medal. The next few months are crucial for our British players as some of them focus on achieving Paralympic selection. I look forward to continuing to work with BTTAD to see athletes with learning disability from the UK competing in the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
The event was especially significant given that it was the first to feature sports specific on site testing under a system managed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).