Two silver medals for British team in doubles events in Thailand
Silver medals for Billy Shilton and Martin Perry in men’s class 14 and Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey in men’s class 18 rounded off a successful tournament for the British Para table tennis team in the ITTF World Para Elite Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand today.
Men’s class 14
Looking to win their fourth consecutive tournament Billy Shilton and Martin Perry clinched a 3-0 win in their opening match against Hwang Inchun and Lee Se Ho from the Republic of Korea 13-11 in the third set and secured top position in their group and a quarterfinal bye with a 3-0 win against Ben Despineux from Belgium and Katsuyoshi Yagi from Japan. They recovered from losing the first set of their semi-final to beat Sam Gustaffson and Jonas Hansson from Sweden 3-1 and set up a final against Clement Berthier and Esteban Herrault.
The European champions from France won in five sets when the pairs last met in Poland earlier this year but Shilton and Perry never really recovered from a slow start today and although they fought back in the third set and had points to take it at 10-8 and 11-10 Berthier and Herrault edged it 13-11 to win 3-0.
“Happy to get to our fifth final in a row,” said Shilton. “It’s good to have the results we’ve been having and still have so much to work on heading into the World Championships. We weren’t good enough in the final and France played tactically well which was enough today. I’m looking forward to getting back into the training hall, so we are best prepared for the Worlds at the end of the year. We will be back for sure.”
“We had a really slow start against France and obviously it was not the result we wanted,” said Perry, “but there are some strong positives to take. We had a difficult group but still managed to win both matches quite comfortably and then beat Sweden again who are a really strong pair. France today were tactically spot on and we’ve got to give them credit for that. It just took us too long to get going and although we started to claw it back a little in the third set ultimately it wasn’t enough. Sometimes you’ve got to lose – it would have been nice to have won four on the bounce but every tournament we’ve played this season we’ve managed to make the final so long may that continue.”
Men’s class 18
Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey began with a 3-0 win against Rances Emmanuel Tuala from the Philippines and Lin Chun Ting from Chinese Taipei and progressed to the quarterfinals as group winners with a 3-0 win against Sayed Youssef and Abdelrahman Abdelwahab from Egypt. They lost the first set of their quarterfinal against Chalermpong Punpoo and Bunpot Sillapakong from Thailand but came back strongly to win 3-1 and progressed to the final after a 3-1 semi-final win against Hayuma Abe and Koyo Iwabuchi, the world ranked number six pair from Japan.
McKibbin and Stacey lost 3-0 to Zhao Shuai and Lian Hao in the final of the ITTF World Para Elite Beijing last month but it was a lot closer today. The GB pair took the first set 12-10 before the Paralympic silver medallists from China levelled at 1-1 and went on to take the third 13-11 and the fourth 12-10 to win 3-1.
“It was a good game,” said McKibbin, “and much better than Beijing. We played the correct way, we just didn’t execute it at the right points. I think we have found how to play them now and we just need to sharpen up a few little points to make the game go in our favour.”
“It was much closer than Beijing,” said Stacey, “and we had a big chance in the third set especially. There are definitely positives to take in the lead up to the World Championships and a few things we can focus on and try to tweak next month in the USA and as preparation over the next few weeks.”
Men’s class 4
Chris Ryan and Tom Matthews lost their opening match against the Paralympic champions Jan Riapos and Peter Lovas from Slovakia 3-0 and were then 3-0 winners against Mayank Srivastava and Lakkshhya Gupta from India. Ryan and Matthews did not progress after a 3-0 loss to Baek Youngbok and Joo Young Dae from the Republic of Korea in their final group match.
Women’s class 20
Lowri Hurd and Grace Williams lost 3-1 to the strong Russian pair of class 10 world number two Anastasia Kostenevich and Olga Gorshkaleva but progressed from their group with a 3-2 win against Olaia Martinez from Spain and Jhona Pena from the Philippines, edging a tight deciding set 13-11 after Martinez and Pena had fought back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2. Hurd and Williams started well against Lin Tzu Yu and Tian Shiau Wen, taking the first set 11-8 before the World number one ranked pair from Chinese Taipei came back to win 3-1.
Mixed class 14
Martin Perry and Grace Williams took the first set against Clement Berthier and Morgen Caillaud and then edged a tight fourth 13-11 to level at 2-2 before the world ranked number three French pair took the deciding set 11-5. Perry and Williams secured their place in the quarterfinals with a 3-1 win against Huang Jiaxin and Ren Guixiang from China and then fought back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 against the number one Chinese pair of Chen Chao and Huang Wenjuan but lost the deciding set 11-4 and the match 3-2.
Mixed class 17
New combination Billy Shilton and Lowri Hurd had a tough first match and after losing a tight first set 16-14 they were beaten 3-0 by Peng Weinan and Xiong Guiyan, the Paralympic silver medallists from China. They recovered from losing the first set to beat Mulyo Banyu Tri and Yuniar Imas from Indonesia 3-1 and progress to the quarterfinals where they lost another close opening set 14-12 to the Chinese Paralympic champions Zhao Shuai and Mao Jingdian who went on to win 3-0.