Young British squad looks to build on experience of Italy in Spain
Medals eluded a young British squad in the doubles events at the ITTF World Para Future Lignano tournament in Italy, but they will look to build on some promising performances and valuable experience gained in the ITTF World Para Future Costa Brava tournament in Spain this week (March 11-14) where they will be joined by World doubles champions Fliss Pickard and Grace Williams.
Men’s class 8
Romain Simon teamed up with Mauro Depergola, the class 5 former Para PanAmerican champion from Argentina and after losing the first two sets against Peter Mihalik and Boris Travnicek they took a tight third set 14-12 before the Tokyo Paralympic team bronze medallists from Slovakia secured the match 13-11 in the fourth. Simon and Depergola put up another fighting performance in their second group match against Petr Svatos and Jiri Zak from Czechia, taking the first set 12-10 and then coming back to level at 2-2 by taking the fourth 11-9 before Svatos and Zak took the deciding set 11-9.
Men’s class 14
Teenagers Dan Thomson and Jacob Wicks started well against class 6 World number seven Bobi Simion of Romania and Benedikt Muller, the former European team medallist from Germany, taking the first set 11-7 before Simion and Muller came back to win 3-1. Thomson and Wicks then came through a great battle against the Argentinian pair of Luciano Khazandjian, bronze medallist in the men’s class 7 singles here, and Emanuel Martinez Alcalde. The British pair took the first two sets and although Khazandjian and Martinez Alcalde edged a tight third set 17-15 and took the fourth 11-7 to level at 2-2 Thomson and Wicks took the deciding set 11-6 for a 3-2 win. They were unlucky not to progress to the knockout stages but with all three pairs in the group recording one win the young British pair lost out on countback.
Men’s class 18
Shae Thakker and Ryan Henry lost their opening match 3-0 to Ian Kim and Lucas Milsom from Australia, silver medallists in Taipei last year, but progressed from group 2 after a 3-1 win against Masoud Mojtahed and Marco Makkar from USA. They missed out on a medal after a 3-0 loss in the quarterfinal to the very experienced Richard Csejtey, the former World number one from Slovakia, and individual neutral athlete Ivan Karpov, winner of the men’s class 10 singles at the World Paralympic Qualification tournament last year.
Max Flint and Theo Bishop had their chances against Lorenzo Cordua and Stefano Butti from Italy despite a 3-0 loss and then lost 3-0 to the Russian pair Iurii Nozdrunov and Artem Iakovlev. Competing here as individual neutral athletes they won gold in the men’s class 9 and men’s class 8 singles respectively and were too strong for the British pair. Flint and Bishop finished on a high with a 3-2 win against Hamza Taleb from Belgium and Brady Zi Rong Chin from Malaysia, the 2021 Asian Para Youth Games bronze medallist, fighting back from 2-1 down to level at 2-2 and then taking the deciding set 11-9.
Mixed class 7
Romain Simon and his class 4 partner Ghaliah Alanazi from Saudi Arabia lost 3-0 to
Florian Merrien and Flora Vautier, the Paris 2024 Paralympic bronze medallists from France, and did not progress after losing their final group match 3-1 to Elias Romero and Coty Garrone from Argentina.
The full British squad for the ITTF World Para Future Costa Brava tournament is:
Daniel Thomson, 19, Brighton/Sheffield (class 7)
Fliss Pickard, 30, Burnley/Sheffield (class 6)
Grace Williams, 21, Llanfyllin/Sheffield (class 8)
Jacob Wicks, 19, Cwmbran/Sheffield (class 6)
Max Flint, 20, Guildford/Loughborough (class 10)
Romain Simon, 35, Leyton/Chigwell (class 3)
Ryan Henry, 24, Ardrossan/Sheffield (class 8)
Shae Thakker, 21, High Wycombe/Sheffield (class 10)
Theo Bishop, 21, Rossendale/Sheffield (class 7)