Under the most difficult of circumstances, a 16-strong team of British Para Table Tennis team athletes paid tribute to their late Performance Director, Gorazd Vecko MBE, who passed away last Friday, by taking part in the ITTF World Para Elite Yvelines 2025 in France, demonstrating the courage and determination that has become the hallmark of the team under the Slovenian’s inspiring and dynamic leadership.
Win or lose they fought for every point and, supported by the coaching team led by BPTT head coach Andrew Rushton, won seven singles medals, including gold for Fliss Pickard (women’s class 6, pictured above), Rob Davies (men’s class 1) and Will Bayley (men’s class 7) and bronze for Bly Twomey (women’s class 7), Paul Karabardak (Men’s Class 6), Aaron McKibbin (Men’s Class 8) and Joshua Stacey (Men’s Class 9).
BPTT program manager Shaun Marples said: “What the team has been able to do in the last few days since they heard Gorazd had passed away and wanted to compete in his honor, I think it really shows the strong family culture that Gorazd has instilled within this team over a number of years.
“It is with great pride that everyone put on their GB shirts and went out and did exactly what he did for Gorazd, with some excellent performances and some great gold medals and bronze medals.
“But it was bigger than hitting a ball on the table. It was about doing it for Gorazd. I know people will be emotionally exhausted from the tournament, and that’s understandable, but overall they can hold their heads up high and think, ‘we did that for you G’ and as a huge thank you and out of love and respect for what he did for the program.”
“The whole team in Britain is extremely proud of every individual who has been to France – it cannot have been easy talking to all the other countries who are also grieving and who all have wonderful, positive memories of Gorazd.
“We have done ourselves proud and I know Gorazd would have been just as proud of the team. This is the start of the GB forces’ fight to honor Gorazd and continue his legacy for years to come.”
Ladies class 6
Fliss Pickard won 3-0 against Kinga Mihalffy of Hungary and then recovered from losing the first set by beating Barbara Jablonka of Poland 3-1.
As group winner, she was given a bye to the semi-finals, where she produced a typically courageous performance to beat Katarzyna Marszal, the world and European silver medalist from Poland, 3-2, 12-10 in the deciding set.
Pickard had to dig deep again in the final against Gulmira Gonobina, who also went the distance. After losing a tight first set 12-10, she defeated the second and third sets 14-12 and secured the gold 12-10 in the fifth, after the 36-year-old Russian leveled at 2-2.
Men’s class 1
Rob Davies won 3-1 against former European team silver medalist Alan Papirer of France and then recovered from losing the first set to beat Paralympic bronze medalist and world number 5 Federico Falco of Italy 3-1. He secured the top position in his group and a bye in the semi-finals with a 3-0 win against Sylvio Keller, the former European bronze medalist from Switzerland, and after dropping the first set, he came back to beat Dmitrii Lavrov, the former two-time European bronze medalist from Russia, 3-1.
Davies was again 1-0 down in the final against Timo Natunen but fought back in typical fashion to take the second 12-10 and then took the third and fourth sets 11-9 to beat the world number 7 from Finland 3-1.
After leading 2-0, compatriot Tom Matthews showed all his fight and determination to come through 3-2 against Adam Urlauber, after the world number 18 from Hungary had leveled the match at 2-2. Matthews lost 3-0 to Timo Natunen, but kept his hopes alive with a 3-0 win against Cyprus’ Antreas Aravis. He was unlucky to lose a place in the quarter-finals on countback.
Men’s class 7
Will Bayley secured his place in the knockout stages as group winners with a 3-0 win against former Paralympic champion Stephane Messi of France and a 3-0 victory against two-time European champion Jean Paul Montanus of the Netherlands.
He defeated world number 4 Krizander Magnussen of Norway 3–1 in the quarter-final and won his semi-final 3–1 against world number 8 Jonas Hansson of Sweden before securing his fifth consecutive gold medal of the year by beating Bjoern Schnake, the world number 7 and European bronze medalist from Germany, 3–0 in the final.
Theo Bishop found himself in a tough group and failed to progress after losing 3-0 to Jonas Hansson, 3-0 to European bronze medalist Kevin Dourbecker of France and 3-2 to Russian world number 6 Maksim Nazarkin.
Men’s class 2
Chris Ryan lost a very close match to world number 8 Daniel Rodriguez of Spain 12-10 in the fifth set and again lost nothing in a 3-2 defeat against the very experienced Frenchman Julien Michaud, 11-9 in the deciding set.
He produced a stellar performance to beat world number 9 Jiri Suchanek of the Czech Republic 3-0 and progress to the quarter-finals where he took the first set against world champion Fabien Lamirault before the world number 3 of France secured a hard-fought 3-1 victory.
Men’s class 4-5
Jack Hunter-Spivey won 3-0 against Krszysztof Zylka of Poland and was then defeated in four close sets by Class 4 world silver medalist Maxime Thomas of France. He progressed as group winner with a 3-0 win against Slovakia’s Peter Mihalik and led 2-0 in his last 16 matches against world number 5 Carlos Freire De Moraes before the Brazilian came back to win 3-2.
Men’s class 6
Paul Karabardak won 3-0 against American teenager Samuel Altshuler and then came through 11-9 in the fifth inning against Benedikt Muller, after the German had twice regained level.
He fought back after dropping the first set to beat Georgios Mouchthis of Greece 3-1 in the quarter-final and led two-time world and Paralympic champion Peter Rosenmeier 2-1 in their semi-final, but was just edged out 3-2 by world number 4 from Denmark.
Martin Perry lost to Rafal Kraft of Poland in five sets, but then recovered to beat world number 8 Esteban Herrault of France 3-0. He got his chance in the quarterfinals against Samuel Altshuler, but the American won the match 3-2, 11-9 in the fifth.
Men’s class 8
World No. 1 Aaron McKibbin was a 3-0 winner against Alejandro Diaz of Spain and then defeated Paris 2024 Paralympic bronze medalist Maksym Nikolenko of Ukraine 3-1. He won his quarter-final against world number 4 Piotr Grudzien of Poland 3-1 and came back level twice in his semi-final against 19-year-old Borna Zohil, but the world number 6 of Croatia took the deciding set for a 3-2 victory.
Billy Shilton won 3-0 against Hamza Taleb from Belgium and then came through a tough battle against Piotr Grudzien 3-2. He once again showed all his fighting spirit to come back from 2-1 down, beating Sweden’s Nicklas Westerberg 12-10 in the deciding set before losing his quarter-final 3-1 to Nikolenko.
Ryan Henry was in a tough group but played with great credit despite losing 3-1 to world number 5 Clement Berthier of France, 3-2 to Marcin Zielinski of Poland and 3-1 to Borna Zohil.
Men’s class 9
Joshua Stacey came through a tough match against German Jan Reinig 3-2 and then recovered from dropping the first set against Lev Kats to beat the world number 10 from Ukraine 3-1. He advanced to group winner after a 3-0 win against Francis Chukwuemeka from Nigeria and was 3-0 winner in the quarter-finals against another Ukrainian Ivan Mai.
The Welshman had to settle for bronze after losing his semi-final 3-1 to world champions And Cepas from Spain.
Women’s class 4-5
Class 4 Megan Shackleton lost 3-0 to Class 5 world number 1 Alexandra Saint-Pierre of France and showed all her character to beat Class 4 world number 4 Irem Oluk of Turkey 3-2.
Shackleton then produced a brilliant performance to fight back from 2-0 down to beat Class 4 World No. 2 and Paris 2024 Paralympic Champion Sandra Mikolaschek of Germany 3-2, 11-4 in the fifth and was unlucky not to progress to the knockout stages on count-out.
Ladies class 7
Bly Twomey was a 3-0 winner against Smilla Sand of Sweden to lead world number 2 Kubra Korkut 2-0 before the world and European champion from Turkey came back to win 3-2.
Twomey reached the semi-finals with a 3-0 win against Norway’s Jenny Slettum and took the first set against world number 1 Kelly Van Zon before the four-time Paralympic champion from the Netherlands used all her experience to secure a 3-1 victory.
Ladies class 8
Grace Williams lost 3-0 to world number 1 Sophia Kelmer of Brazil and then fought back superbly from 8-4 down in the deciding set to beat Italy’s Elena Elli 3-2.
She had her chances against Juliane Wolf in the quarter-finals, but the German world number 5 and Paris 2024 bronze medalist won the third set after Williams led 9-3, which proved crucial in a 3-1 win.
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