GB Disability Table Tennis have had a highly successful May fortnight at the Slovenian and Dutch Opens.
The squad based in Sheffield and run by BTTAD under the lead of Performance Manager Gorazd Vecko sent 11 players to Slovenia and was rewarded by an outstanding crop of results in a field of well over 300 players from Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Gold was won by Scott Robertson in the Class 5 wheelchair team event when he combined with a Norwegian; silver went to the all British pair of Jane Campbell and Sara Head – losing to the Chinese in the final; bronze went to David Wetherill combining with a Brazilian in the Class 6 standing team event -repeating their success in Italy in March.
However there were 4 other semi final positions with Joe Stotesbury and Kim Daybell playing so well but just losing out on bronze in the Class 7 and Class 10 standing singles respectively with Will Bayley and Paul Karabardak faring similarly in the class 7 team event after losing closely to the Chinese in the semi final. The event closed with a remarkable play-off for the bronze in the Class 10 standing team event when Kim Daybell defeated the 2 Chinese (including the singles silver medallist) and Ashley Facey – Thompson so nearly won a single with the team just losing the doubles to go down 2-3 almost a win for GB over China!
A smaller contingent moved on to Holland where they built on the Slovenia experience to win 3 silver medals. Will Bayley won silver in the Class 7 standing singles; Jane and Sara repeated their silver in the Class 3 wheelchair team event while Paul Davies and Robert Davies gained silver the Class 1-2 wheelchair team event.
Gorazd Vecko was highly pleased with these results ; he was delighted that the GB wins included ones over a number of players in the top 4 of the world ranking list. Currently both Will Bayley and Sue Gilroy are in the top 4 in the world.
Now they move on to events in Slovakia, Rumania and Germany.
You will be able to see the GB players and many world class disabled players at the British Open in Sheffield between September 14 and 17 – and its free!
Mike Smith