British Para Table Tennis Pathway Athletes Max Flint, Bailey Page and Dan Thomson will participate in the seventh European Para Youth competitions that take place in Istanbul, Turkey of 25-27 July.
The European Para Youth Games, held for the first time in the Czech Republic in 2011, is an international multi -port competition for athletes with a disability that is designed to develop the paralympic movement and to provide a basis for growth, allowing young athletes to develop their skills and experience trust at a high level. This year’s event is the largest so far, with 33 countries and nearly 650 athletes.
Table tennis is one of the founding sports of the European Para Youth Games, which was in the program of the first edition in 2011. It is one of the nine sports that can be seen this year -in addition to archery, athletics, Boccia, Goorbal, Judo, Taekwondo, swimming and wheelchair basketball -and is open to athletes from the age of 12-23.
Max Flint, 21, from Guildford (shown above) reached the final of the Herenklasse 10 singles in the US Open in 2023 and took bronze in the French last year. He is currently studying mathematics and sports science at the University of Loughborough.
“I am extremely proud to represent GB at the European Para Youth Games,” he said, “and not only wants to do it well, but also for all the people who have supported my journey.
“I look forward to being in an environment with elite para athletes of different sports and seeing if I can learn from certain things they do with preparation, recovery, etc. My most important hope is to perform at my best level and enjoy the games. I will try to take everything and learn from experience.”
Bailey Page, 18, from Plymouth made his international debut in Montenegro last year and won his first medal in April at the World Para Future Lahti in Finland and took bronze in the men’s class 14 Doubles with Dan Thomson.
“I am looking forward to seeing an opening ceremony,” he said, “and see other sports and how they prepare for their events – maybe I see something that I can take away with tennis table.
“Representing GB at every event is especially for me, but this is certainly the biggest event so far. I am proud to compete for my country; it is something that I have worked very hard to achieve, but hopefully this is only the beginning and will prepare for future events. I always take one game at the same time and hopefully that is enough to achieve that.”
Dan Thomson, 20, from Brighton also took silver in the men’s class 6 singles in Finland and is located in Sheffield, where he combines training with the British team and quantity of research research at Sheffield Hallam University.
“I look forward to meeting athletes of other sports and seeing other people with different disabilities,” he said. “It means a lot to be able to represent GB on the games, because it will be like a mini Paralympic Games, so it will be good to represent GB next to other sports.
“My hope for the competition is to place what I worked on during training in the matches and to force my playing style to my opponents.”
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