Czechia doubles a learning experience for young British squad
An inexperienced British squad showed plenty of fighting spirit and potential in the doubles events at the ITTF World Para Future Ostrava in Czechia and gained more valuable experience against some strong opposition.
“Overall, it’s been a productive doubles tournament,” said BPTT programme manager Shaun Marples. “As a programme we’ve had some really good open and honest conversations and a lot of them have been around this middle game where we need to get better. As a coaching team Neil and I have been able to highlight to the players what is needed for that next level – that is the area where we need to be stronger and that has hit home with practically all of the players at this tournament.
“Definitely an improvement on the singles which was great to see – even though the singles tournament was good. It has been one of those tournaments where we haven’t come away with any medals but there have been so many lessons to take from it that it has actually been one of the better tournaments to learn from so that is very pleasing. Now the ownership is on the athletes to work with their coaches back home to put things in place ready for the next competitions and that’s the way the athletes need to look at it as a model going forwards.”
Men’s class 4 RR
On his international debut Nathan Drayner teamed up with class 3 Peter Jereb from Slovenia and they lost 3-0 to Alan Papirer and Francois Geuljans from France, silver medallists in the French Para Open last year and 3-0 to Daniel Rodriguez and Iker Sastre from Spain. Drayner and Jereb competed well against Gasper Mlakar and Primoz Kancler from Slovenia, taking the second set 11-8 to level at 1-1 before losing the third 11-9 and the fourth 12-10 for a 3-1 loss. They lost their final match in the round-robin event against Lukas Klizan and Marian Kamien from Slovakia 3-0.
Men’s class 14
Jacob Wicks and Jaiden Caldeira fought back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 against Gyula Zborai from Hungary and Benedikt Muller from Germany but lost the deciding set 11-6. They were 3-0 winners against Balint Gelencser and Lazar Nyiri Szabo from Hungary and then produced another fighting performance to come back from 2-0 down against Gabriel Diez Alvarez from Spain and Marc Ledoux from Belgium to win 3-2, 11-9 in the fifth. That secured their place in the quarterfinals where they lost 3-0 to Bjoern Schnake from Germany and Christian Scheiber from Austria.
Dan Thomson and Bailey Page were beaten 3-0 by Piotr Manturz and Marcin Zielinski from Poland and did not progress from group 2 after a 3-1 loss to Gonzalo Rodriguez and Pablo Romero from Spain.
Men’s class 18
Shae Thakker and Ryan Henry were 3-0 winners against Mohit Singh and Jonas Wand from Germany and then fought back from 2-0 down to beat Marlon Lopez and Ricard Sabio Ruiz from Spain 11-8 in the fifth. They secured their place in the quarterfinals as winners of group 4 with a 3-0 win against Lukas Rozinaj from Slovakia and Jan Malec from Czechia and were disappointed to lose in three close sets to Mio Wagner and Kai Skibbe from Germany.
Max Flint and his Belgian partner Hamza Taleb won the opening set against Igor Misztal and Maksym Chudzicki before the Polish pair came back to win 3-1. They led 2-1, 8-3 against Jan Muska and Vit Spalek before the Czech pair came back to win the fourth 11-9 and level at 2-2 but recovered from that disappointment to take the deciding set 11-6 and progress to the quarterfinals as group 1 runners-up where they lost 3-0 to the World bronze medallists from France Mateo Boheas and Thomas Bouvais.
Mixed class 14
Ryan Henry and Emelie Endre from Sweden started slowly against Maksym Chudzicki and Katarzyna Marszal but improved as the match went on despite a 3-0 loss to the European bronze medallists from Poland. They were 3-1 winners against Nemanja Majkic and Larisa Stojsin from Serbia but did not progress from their group after a 3-0 loss to Gonzalo Rodriguez and Pilar Gonzalez from Spain.