Bayley defeats talented teenager to take gold in USA
World number one Will Bayley won his third consecutive singles gold medal today when winning the men’s class 7 singles at the ITTF World Para Future Spokane tournament in Washington state, USA. The World and European champion had to show all his trademark spirit and determination to retain his unbeaten record in 2025 and proved once again that he is the ultimate competitor.
Bayley recovered from a slow start to beat the American Mathew Weber 3-1 and secured top place in his group and a bye into the quarterfinals by beating Christian Scheiber from Austria 3-0. He lost a tight first set to Israel Stroh 12-10 but went on to beat the Rio 2016 Paralympic silver medallist from Brazil 3-1 and then came through a tricky semi-final against the improving Sam Gustafsson, gold medallist in the World Para Future Lahti in Finland earlier this year, using his clever tactical play to mitigate the superior power of the 21-year-old from Sweden.
That took him through to the final where he faced the talented teenager Krizander Magnussen. The pair met in Slovenia in May when Bayley won in three sets but gold medals in Spain and Poland have seen the 18-year-old Norwegian rise to number four in the current world rankings. Bayley took the first set 11-9 but Magnussen levelled at 1-1 and at 6-3 in the third appeared to have the momentum after a series of spectacular forehand winners. A timeout steadied the ship and after edging a tight third set 13-11 a fired-up Bayley raced through the fourth set 11-1 to win the match 3-1 and take the gold.
“I feel he played very well,” said Bayley, “he has so much quality and he is improving very fast. I just tried to dig deep, and it was more of a mental battle to stay in the match. I need to improve a lot for the next tournament – I just want to bring the energy I had towards the end of my matches, but this time for the whole competition.”
In men’s class 2 Chris Ryan won his opening match 3-0 against the American Gabriel Diaz De Leon and then lost 3-1, 12-10 in the fourth to the World number seven and two-time former Paralympic champion Jan Riapos from Slovakia. He progressed to the knockout stages with a 3-0 win against the Canadian Peter Isherwood and started well in his quarterfinal, taking the first set 11-1 against World number five Luis Flores, before the Para PanAmerican champion from Chile came back to win 3-1.
Bayley and Ryan are part of a 15-strong British squad that will compete in the ITTF World Para Elite Spokane tournament that starts on Saturday.
The British squad for the ITTF World Para Elite Spokane (August 9-13) is:
Will Bayley, 37, Tunbridge Wells/Brighton – class 7
Theo Bishop, 22, Rossendale/Sheffield – class 7
Rob Davies, 40, Brecon – class 1
Jack Hunter-Spivey, 30, Liverpool/Sheffield – class 5
Paul Karabardak, 39, Swansea – class 6
Tom Matthews, 32, Aberdare – class 1
Aaron McKibbin, 33, London (Wandsworth)/Epsom – class 8
Martin Perry, 31, Paisley/Dumbarton – class 6
Fliss Pickard, 31, Burnley/Sheffield – class 6
Chris Ryan, 34, Welwyn Garden City – class 2
Megan Shackleton, 25, Todmorden/Sheffield – class 4
Billy Shilton, 26, Stonehouse (Gloucester)/Sheffield – class 8
Joshua Stacey, 25, Cardiff/Sheffield – class 9
Bly Twomey, 15, Brighton – class 7
Grace Williams, 22, Llanfyllin/Sheffield – class 8