Jack Hunter-Spivey & Megan Shackleton came within a point of gold but had to settle for silver in the Grade 10 mixed doubles on the penultimate day of the ITTF European Para Table Tennis Championships in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Billy Shilton & Paul Karabardak took bronze in the Grade 14 men’s doubles, while Will Bayley & Theo Bishop advanced to tomorrow’s final.
Bayley is also through to the Class 14 mixed doubles final with Bly Twomey, who will also compete with Fliss Pickard in the Class 14 women’s doubles semi-finals. Chris Ryan and Tom Matthews added bronze in Class 4 men’s doubles to the bronze medals they won in their respective singles events.
Mixed class 10
Jack Hunter-Spivey & Megan Shackleton (pictured above) won their first round-robin match against Andre Soare & Kyra Liepach of Germany 3-1 and after losing a tight first set to Hamza Caliskan & Merve Ozsu of Turkey 10-12 they won the next two 11-7 and then came back from 5-1 down to beat the fourth 16-14 for a 3-1 victory.
They faced another Turkish duo Ali Ozturk and Irem Oluk in the final match to decide the gold and started well. They came back from 7-3 to win the first set 11-7 and the second 11-9 to lead 2-0.
Hunter-Spivey & Shackleton moved to 9-7 in the third, but Ozturk & Oluk took the set 11-9 to reduce the deficit to 2-1 and saved a match point at 10-9 before leveling the fourth 13-11 at 2-2. With the momentum in their favor, they took the deciding set and although the British duo continued to fight and save three match points, Ozturk & Oluk won the match 11-5 and took the gold.
“Jack and I have probably come a long way in the last few weeks,” Shackleton said. “We didn’t have the best performance last year and we are quite disappointed, so to get a silver medal at the European Championships we have to be proud.
“It’s very frustrating to have a match point and I’m sure we want to get through that obviously, but we’ve worked out a really good method here and seen positive progress and we’ll have to keep going and trust it. Those matches will always be 50/50 with Ozturk & Oluk and it was just one of those days.”
“It was a 50/50 match between four good players,” said Hunter-Spivey, “and we played really well. We haven’t had the best of seasons on the double side, so to get through and get a medal we are very proud of the performance and the way we carried ourselves on the table was great too.”
“Very disappointed that we didn’t get the match point, but to be in a position to have a match point against one of the best teams in the world is a privilege and hopefully we’ll get that next time.”
Men’s class 4
Chris Ryan and Tom Matthews played a great match to beat Serbia’s Goran Perlic and Boris Stoiljkovic 3-0 in their quarter-final and fought back well after a slow start against highly experienced Paralympic champions Jan Riapos and Peter Lovas, losing 13-11 in the third set to the world number 1 pair from Slovakia.
“I think we might have gotten through the game a little easier than we thought this morning,” Ryan said, “but unfortunately we weren’t at that level this afternoon. I had zero feeling in that game, but when we play the way we do it’s risk/reward and unfortunately we were on the wrong side in that game.”
“I’m learning so much. Just being surrounded by several Paralympians at the table is invaluable to me. There are a lot of things to be proud of and I’ve made good progress in this tournament.”
“We had a slow start against Slovakia and I didn’t get the feeling I had against Serbia this morning,” Matthews said. “It’s a different variation playing against Grade 2 players so it’s a challenge for me but I’m enjoying it and enjoying playing with Chris. He’s had a great tournament so congratulations to him and hopefully this duo can continue to progress.”
“We’ve only played seven matches together and the Paralympic champions have probably played 700 together, so it’s a big difference. The more we train together and the more we play together, we’ll come back and hopefully come out on top. I’m very proud to have achieved another major medal. It’s been a great tournament and we’ll be working towards Thailand next year and the World Championships.”
Men’s class 14
After a round of 16 bye, Will Bayley and Theo Bishop faced Henrik Brammer and Peter Rosenmeier in their quarterfinal match. The European silver medalists from Denmark twice came back level and then saved five match points at 10-5 to level at 10-10 in a nail-biting deciding set, which saw the GB pair eventually secure 20-18 with their eighth match point, after the Danish pair failed to take five themselves.
In the semi-finals, Bayley & Bishop again faced a strong duo: former two-time European men’s class 7 champion Jean Paul Montanus and the newly crowned champion Yannick Paredis. After dropping the first set, they put in a great performance, winning the next three sets 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 and beating the Dutch duo 3-1.
“It was a crazy day,” Bayley said. “I actually think Theo and I can play much better than against Denmark. Peter Rosenmeier is one of the best players in Class 6, if not the best, so we had to dig very deep and that’s what we do best – when things are against us we are at our best and I think that is our strength.”
“Theo has achieved so much here. He’s a good player and a fighter, so I’m not surprised and I don’t think he should be surprised. I’m proud of the way we fought when we got into trouble. We showed we were brave and we never gave up, so come on tomorrow.”
“I think I’m playing some good stuff at the moment,” Bishop said, “so I’m really pleased. Every now and then there’s a bump in the road, but we’ll regroup and go again. I know that whatever happened in the last point, I’m behind myself to make it next, just like Will, and I think that’s why we’re so strong in these close games, because no matter what happened before we keep playing our game, no matter what happens.”
World champions Billy Shilton & Paul Karabardak were 3-0 winners of their round of 16 match against Bobi Simion & Robert Boroleanu of Romania and then cruised through a five-set battle against Jonas Hansson & Sam Gustafsson. With the match level at 2-2, Shilton & Karabardak led 8-3 in the deciding set, but the Swedish pair fought back to 8-8 and saved a match point before the GB pair won the set 12-10 and the match 3-2.
They faced defending champions and Paralympic bronze medalists Clement Berthier and Esteban Herrault in their semi-final and never recovered from a slow start in a 3-0 defeat to world number 2 France.
“I think we played really well in the morning in a really tough game against Sweden,” said Shilton, “and I feel like we never really got going against France. It’s a tough game – they’ve played together for a long time, and this was our first tournament together since Paris. It’s nice to come here and get another big medal with Paul and I think we’ll be happy with the result in a few days.”
“I think we played very well against Sweden,” Karabardak said. “They’re one of the best teams so to beat them was a great feeling and I think we played the best doubles match we’ve ever played together to win that match. So that was really nice and it’s good to get back to the form we’ve shown before as we haven’t played together since Paris.”
Men’s class 18
Joshua Stacey and Aaron McKibbin were very unlucky to be drawn in the round of 16 against Paralympic champions and defending European champions Patryk Chojnowski and Piotr Grudzien. The British pair fought hard and won the first set 11-9 before the Polish pair came back strongly to win the match 3-1.
In their first major championship, Shae Thakker and Ryan Henry were drawn against another strong Polish duo in Igor Misztal and Maksym Chudzicki. The young GB pair did well in the first two sets, losing both 11-9 before Misztal and Chudzicki used their experience to race through the third set 11-2 for a 3-0 win.
“It was a very difficult competition,” said Henry, “a very high standard and a very different experience to other international competitions – a different kind of pressure. I feel like I can take a lot of positives out of the experience. I don’t think I played that well, but I can certainly make a lot of notes and things to take back to training.”
“I think we actually played quite well in doubles. We played against a very strong duo and there were a few things we could have done better, but overall we played quite well.”
“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Thakker “to play in a major championship against world-class players. I felt like I did my best and gave every point its own value and I am happy with the way I handled the pressure even though I didn’t get the results I wanted.
“In doubles we played against a very strong pair. We were a little bit unhappy in the first two sets, and I think we played some good things. I’m proud of what we did and there are a lot of things to take away and work on.”
Women’s class 14
Bly Twomey & Fliss Pickard won their first group match 3-0 against Cajsa Stadler & Smilla Sand from Sweden. They started well against Thu Kamkasomphou & Morgen Caillaud, winning the first set 11-3, but the French pair took the next two sets to lead 2-1 and then won a thrilling fourth set 19-17 to win the match 3-1 with their sixth match point. While France defeated Sweden in the final group match, Twomey & Pickard advanced to the semi-finals tomorrow, where they will play against World and Paralympic Games silver medalists Stephanie Grebe and Juliane Wolf of Germany.
Mixed class 14
As top seeds, Will Bayley & Bly Twomey had a round of 16 bye and came through a tough quarter-final against Poland’s Marcin Zielinski & Barbara Jablonka 3-1. They advanced to tomorrow’s final with a 3-0 win against Peter Rosenmeier & Freja Larsen from Denmark.
“We know each other’s game inside and out, so it’s easy to play with Bly,” said Bayley, “because I know what she’s going to do before she does it, so we read each other’s game quite well. It’s a pleasure to play with her and she gets better every time. You don’t get that many opportunities to play in a grand final, so it’s exciting. I’ve never won a major medal with Bly before, so it will be a big achievement for us if we manage to pull it off tomorrow.”
“I’ve always wanted to play with Will since the beginning,” said Twomey, who trains with Bayley at the Brighton Table Tennis Club. “He’s a great person to play with and I’m just really proud to be playing with the number one in the world. We’re in the final now, so hopefully we can get gold.”
Martin Perry & Grace Williams led Krizander Magnussen & Nora Korneliussen 2-1 in their round of 16, but the Norwegian duo won a narrow fourth set 12-10 to level at 2-2 and won the deciding set 11-8.
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