Three doubles medals for young British squad in Finland
There was success in the doubles events for an inexperienced British Para table tennis squad in the ITTF World Para Future Lahti at the Pajulahti Olympic Training Center in Finland today with Londoner Romain Simon taking silver in men’s class 4-8 and bronze in mixed class 4-10 and teenagers Bailey Page and Dan Thomson taking bronze in men’s class 14.
Men’s class 4-8
Romain Simon teamed up with class 5 World number 11 David Olsson from Sweden and they were 3-0 winners against Jiri Zak and Martin Lukas from Czechia. They then came through a great battle against Francois Geuljans and Alan Papirer 3-2, taking the deciding set 11-8 after the French pair had edged a tight fourth set 13-11 to level at 2-2 having been 2-0 down.
That took them through to the semi-finals and after losing a tight first set 14-12 they went on to beat Hugo Nou from France and Tsuyoshi Watanabe from Japan 3-1 before losing the final to the very experienced French pair of European doubles class 8 silver medallist Emeric Martin and class 3 World number five Florian Merrien 3-0.
“Doubles is helping my game,” said Simon, “because it is giving me the confidence to be free enough to play shots and when I come up against some of these more established players I feel like I’m able to go toe to toe with them and play tactically better. Playing with someone like David, who is a really strong player, is really beneficial for me because I have someone in my corner who can help me out when I’m struggling and give me positive reinforcement. I’m still learning how to bring this into my singles game, but I can see the development and improvement and I need to work off that as a base and improve more.
“The medals are great because it is helping me to know that there are results behind the processes I’m working on. I’m happy that the processes are working but there are things I need to improve on. Since I made my debut here three years ago there have been ups and downs, but I can see that slowly my game has more of a solid foundation and is allowing me to be more confident. The more confidence I get the better I’ll be and I’m hoping my improvement will accelerate in the next few tournaments.”
Men’s class 14
Bailey Page and Dan Thomson lost 3-1 to number one seeds Jonas Hansson and Sam Gustafsson from Sweden but then secured their place in the knockout stages with a 3-0 win against Gabriel Diez Alvarez and Ricard Sabio Ruiz from Spain. They faced another Spanish pair in the quarterfinals and took the match 11-6 in the fifth after Gonzalo Rodriguez and Pablo Romero had twice come back to level.
In the semi-final against the very experienced Swedish pair of Emil Andersson and Michael Azulay they had set points in the first before losing it 13-11 but took the second 11-9 to level at 1-1. From that point the experience of Andersson and Azulay proved decisive, and they took the third 11-4 and the fourth 11-3 for a 3-1 win. Nevertheless, it was a very promising performance by the young British pair that bodes well for the future.
“It’s a great honour to represent my country and win my first international medal,” said 18-year-old Page from Plymouth, who was competing in only his second international tournament. “I have been working hard in the training hall, and it is a good feeling to see things paying off and the things I am working on I am now putting into match play. I think Dan and I complement each other’s game well and we kept each other positive throughout. This really showed in the quarterfinal against Spain as we had bad second and fourth sets and going into the fifth we could easily have lost momentum, but we made ourselves do the basics well and it got us through the match.
“In my singles I felt calmer than in my first international in Montenegro last year. Beating Horut was a very good performance – I found the right balance of shot selection and it showed. Overall, this has been a great tournament for me and given me a lot of confidence that I can take forward to future competitions.”
Thomson was winning his second medal of the tournament having taken silver in the men’s class 6 singles yesterday.
“We managed to give Andersson and Azulay a good game for two sets,” he said, “and after that we didn’t really change much. I think Andersson just got a lot more consistent with his spin and I think it was more a case of them making fewer mistakes than us changing anything. It was good to see that Bailey and I can give those pairs a good game because they are a very strong pair - especially in our first tournament together. I think our styles complement each other quite well when we play doubles. This tournament has made me realise how much my work in the training hall is helping. I was starting to see improvements in how I play in matches, and it is nice to see that my training is starting to lead to better results.”
Jaiden Caldeira and Jacob Wicks were also involved in a five-set battle in their first match against Aaro Makela from Finland and Nicklas Westerberg from Sweden and they took the deciding set 11-9 for a 3-2 win after Makela and Westerberg had levelled at 2-2. Caldeira and Wicks were 3-0 winners against Andres Leet and Carl Seeberg from Estonia but then lost their final match 3-1 to Gonzalo Rodriguez and Pablo Romero. With three pairs all recording two wins group 2 was decided on countback and the young British pair were unlucky not to progress.
Mixed class 4-10
Romain Simon and 17-year-old Martina Sande from Spain lost 3-0 to Florian Merrien, the mixed doubles Paralympic bronze medallist from France, and Aino Tapola from Finland but then secured their place in the semi-finals with a 3-1 win against Naoki Hosoya and Aya Kita from Japan.
After losing the first two sets against class four former World number one Emeric Martin from France and Cristina Rubio from Spain Simon and Sande fought back well to take the third set 12-10 but Martin and Rubio secured a 3-1 win, 11-9 in the fourth.