Challenging first day for British squad at European Para Youth Games
After day one of the table tennis events at the European Para Youth Games in Pajulahti in Finland Theo Bishop (men’s class 7), Joe Crouse (men’s class 9) and Ryan Henry (men’s class 8) are all through to the knockout stages of their respective singles events tomorrow.
Bishop, 19, from Bury, won both his group matches 3-1 against Styrbjorn Ekengren from Sweden and 3-1 against Baptiste Lenne from France. He is through to the quarterfinal where he will play Roberto Martinelli from Italy.
On his international debut Crouse, 19, from Falmouth, also won both his group matches - 3-0 against Bruno Araujo from Portugal and 3-1 against Dominik Bartosik from Poland. He plays another Italian Mirko Bruschi in the semi-final.
Henry, 22, from Ardrossan lost a close first match 3-2 to Stefano Butti from Italy but recovered to win 3-0 against Marcin Mroczka from Poland and 3-0 against Alejandro Diaz Tirado from Spain. He will play Uros Gugolj from Montenegro in the quarterfinals.
Shae Thakker (men’s class 10) and Grace Williams (women’s class 6-10) did not progress from their groups. Thakker, 18, from High Wycombe, lost two close matches 3-2 to Julien Cigolotti from France and Marlon Lopez Perez from Spain but finished with a 3-1 win against Erik Linander from Sweden.
Williams, 19, from Llanfyllin, also finished win a win – 3-0 against Amanda Chenoll Gonzalez from Spain – but lost her first two matches 3-0 to Freja Juhl Larsen from Denmark and Magdalena Pawlasek from Poland.
“Today has been a very challenging day,” said BPTT Pathway Manager Shaun Marples. “We had some great performances, especially from Joe on his international debut winning his group. Theo was very good, playing in the right way, trying to play his game against others and had some great results. Ryan bounced back very well from the morning loss winning his next two matches in the right way. Shae and Grace battled with tough groups, but they will learn a lot from the experience. It’s a fantastic tournament here, full of young athletes with great potential who are all trying to develop their respective games.”