McKibbin and Hunter-Spivey crowned National champions in Sheffield
Aaron McKibbin and Jack Hunter-Spivey took the Open Standing and Open Wheelchair titles respectively at the 2026 Michael Hawkesworth British Para Table Tennis National Championships held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Martin Perry and Billy Shilton took the Open Standing Doubles and Chris Ryan combined with Jacob Wicks to take the Open Wheelchair Doubles.
McKibbin defeated Billy Shilton in the men’s class 8 final on day one and the two made it through to the final of the Open Standing class on day two, McKibbin with a 3-0 win against Will Bayley and Shilton with a 3-1 win against Max Flint in the semi-finals. In a high-quality match McKibbin took the first set but Shilton came back to take the second 12-10 and the third 12-10 to lead 2-1. McKibbin levelled at 2-2 and at 9-9 in the deciding set the match could have gone either way but an error from Shilton gave McKibbin match point and with the help of a net cord he secured the set 11-9 and the match 3-2.
“Obviously everyone is in pretty good form as we’re really close to the World Championships now,” said McKibbin, “so it’s the perfect time to play a competition and it’s always nice to win a National title. I lost to Billy last year in the final of class 8 and I got my revenge yesterday which was really good, but he came back today and played so much better. It was one of our better matches – we play each other so much and normally we play the same way, and it is just the better player on the day who wins but today I think we both changed tactics quite a lot throughout the match. I started really well and then he changed his game but in the fourth and fifth sets I changed my game which I think gave me the advantage.
“At 9-9 in the fifth I felt really confident that I was going to win the next two points. In that situation I wasn’t doubting myself – if anything I was more positive. I won it on a lucky point at the end but that is part of the sport. It was a really tough match to be fair - very up and down - so I’m just happy to pull through and get a bit of confidence knowing I’m in good form going into the Worlds.”
Hunter-Spivey lost the Open Wheelchair title last year to the now-retired Megan Shackleton and he has a new challenger in the former class 6 athlete Jacob Wicks, who now competes in class 5. Hunter-Spivey defeated the young Welshman 3-1 to win the class 3-5 title and faced him again in the final of the Open Wheelchair class after beating Thomas Hepburn 3-0 with Wicks defeating Chris Ryan 3-0 in the other semi-final. Wicks showed his potential in four close sets which Hunter-Spivey won 3-1.
“Winning a National title is always a privilege,” said Hunter-Spivey. “I was happy to retain my title in class 3-5 and win the Open again. We’ve got young players coming through of all ages and it’s great to see the sport growing - I’ll never take it for granted being champion. It’s been great having Jacob around in the training hall and he’s got a lot of potential. I’m trying to be a bit of a mentor for him and he’s a good training partner for me as well – he’s a good lad and I’m looking forward to seeing his future – as long as he doesn’t start beating me we’ll be fine!
“I’ve had a tough season results-wise and I’ve had a lot going on but with the results in Spain and now on the back of the National Championships I feel that I’ve found a bit of form at the right time so I’m looking forward to the Worlds and producing my top level if I can.”
Martin Perry and Billy Shilton have developed into one of the best doubles teams in the world in men’s class 14 and they came through the group and knockout stages to face Theo Bishop and Ryan Henry in the final of the Open Standing Doubles. They recovered from dropping the first set to level at 1-1 and then edged a close third set 12-10 before securing a hard-fought 3-1 win, 11-5 in the fourth.
“The final was tough,” said Shilton, who was retaining his title having won it last year with Aaron McKibbin. “Theo and Ryan play together a lot in training when we all practice doubles which is great. We’re playing well – there are still a few things we can improve but we’ve got a nice block of training now over the next two weeks to really knuckle down and be at our best level at the Worlds.”
“I knew I was in good hands with Billy as that’s his third title in a row,” said Perry. “It wasn’t easy – there were a lot of tough matches especially in the final where we had very tough opponents in Theo and Ryan. They play a very similar style to a lot of teams we’re going to come up against at the Worlds and as Billy says we’ve got a few weeks now where we can really get our heads down and really try and enforce what we want to do on the table because our top level can be the very top level. If we can unlock that in these next couple of weeks I think we’ve got a fantastic chance to hopefully do something special at the World Championships.”
Chris Ryan was also defending the Open Wheelchair Doubles title he won last year with a new partner, with Jacob Wicks replacing Romain Simon. The pair won all three of their round-robin matches without dropping a set to take the title with Rob Davies and Jack Hunter-Spivey securing silver with a 3-1 win against Thomas Hepburn and Bethany Kelf.
“We’ve never played together even in training,” said Ryan, who also retained his singles title in class 1-2, “although we’ve trained together a decent amount since Jacob’s come to class 5 so we know each other’s game quite well. He’s like me on steroids – he can do everything that I do but with more function so it works well.”
“Playing in a wheelchair has been a big change,” said Wicks, who won the Open Standing Band B class at last year’s National Championships. “In the past year I’ve had to learn how to use the chair and everything, but I think I’m adapting quite well and picking up some nice points so hopefully I can continue that. Jack is one of the top players in class 5 in the world so to be having chances against him and taking sets – you can’t really ask for much more when you’ve just started. I’m really enjoying playing doubles – it’s definitely hard to get used to when the ball is in the middle and to know who is going to hit it and when to hit it and I think Chris and I both played really well.”
Bly Twomey retained her Women’s Open Standing title and Bethany Kelf took the Women’s Open Wheelchair title while other winners were Paul Karabardak (class 6), Will Bayley (class 7), Max Flint (class 9-10 and U23), Harry Fairchild (class 11), Ahmed Mavaddat (Veterans), Claudio Coutinho (Open Standing Band B and U15) and Shae Thakker, who won the Player of the Tournament for his sportsmanship and fair play.
Roll of Honour
Open Standing
Winner: Aaron McKibbin
Runner-up: Billy Shilton
Open Wheelchair:
Winner: Jack Hunter-Spivey
Runner-up: Jacob Wicks
Open Standing Doubles
Winners: Martin Perry & Billy Shilton
Runners-up: Theo Bishop & Ryan Henry
Open Wheelchair Doubles
Winners: Chris Ryan & Jacob Wicks
Runners-up: Rob Davies & Jack Hunter-Spivey
Women’s Standing
Winner: Bly Twomey
Runner-up: Fliss Pickard
Women’s Wheelchair
Winner: Bethany Kelf
Runner-up: Nicola Baker
Open Standing Band B
Winner: Claudio Coutinho
Runner-up: Ryan Morton
Class 1-2
Winner: Chris Ryan
Runner-up: Rob Davies
Class 3-5
Winner: Jack Hunter-Spivey
Runner-up: Jacob Wicks
Class 6
Winner: Paul Karabardak
Runner-up: Martin Perry
Class 7
Winner: Will Bayley
Runner-up: Theo Bishop
Class 8
Winner: Aaron McKibbin
Runner-up: Billy Shilton
Class 9-10
Winner: Max Flint
Runner-up: Lowri Hurd
Class 11
Winner: Harry Fairchild
Runner-up: Kane Ross
U23
Winner: Max Flint
Runner-up: Dan Thomson
U15
Winner: Claudio Coutinho
Runner-up: Alfred Duggan
Veterans
Winner: Ahmed Mavaddat
Runner-up: David Lawrence
Player of the Tournament:
Shae Thakker
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSHUA COLLYER