Zahna Hall and Charlotte Bardsley won individual golds as England returned from Limerick with a fistful of medals of all colours from the Senior Schools’ International Championships staged by Table Tennis Ireland.
Teams from England, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Scotland and Wales joined the hosts for this annual schools’ event.
Hall won the Under-18 Girls’ competition, defeating her England team-mate Bethany Farnworth 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-8) in the final, while Bardsley overcame team-mate Mollie Patterson 3-1 (4-11, 11-4, 11-4, 12-10) in the Under-14 Girls’ final.
There were four silver medals as well, including both Under-16 competitions, where Matt Leete was beaten 3-2 (0-11, 11-9, 11-8, 3-11, 11-6) by Ireland’s Owen Cathcart and Sophie Barlow 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-5) by Katie McGlone, also of Ireland.
In the Under-18 Boys, Josh Bennett lost 3-1 (6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8) to Wales’ Callum Evans, while Sam Chesterman went down 3-1 (4-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-3) to Dylan Curry of Scotland.
Bronze medals were won by Nicole Bird (U18G), Shayan Siraj (U16B), Sarah Menghistab & Bhavika Mistry (U16G) and Naphat Boonyaprapa (U14B).
The English Schools’ A teams dominated with victories at Under-18 Girls (Hall & Gina Rieck), Under-16 Boys (Leete & Joe Clark), Under-14 Boys (Chesterman & Boonyaprapa) and Under-14 Girls (Bardsley & Patterson). Hosts Ireland was the Under-18 Boys and Under-16 Girls.
The English delegation also recorded three second and two third places.
The full squads were:
Under-18 Boys: Josh Bennett, Kin Fung Chan, James Hobson, James Smith
Under-18 Girls: Nicole Bird, Bethany Farnworth, Zahna Hall, Gina Rieck
Under-16 Boys: Joe Clark, Harry Dai, Matt Leete, Shayan Siraj
Under-16 Girls: Sophie Barlow, Isabelle Joubeily, Sarah Menghistab, Bhavika Mistry
Under-14 Boys: Naphat Boonyaprapa, Sam Chesterman, Louis Moyes, Freddie Osenton-Brown
Under-14 Girls: Charlotte Bardsley, Chloe Lingard, Mollie Patterson, Charlotte Weatherby
Head of Delegation: Margot Fraser
NPCs: Dave Pilkington, Steve Lyons, Tim Holtam, Jane Durham, Shirley Pickering, Kate Hughes
Umpires: Steve Rate, Lester Smith