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Date of birth: 16.01.1990
Current rankings: England: Junior no 1,
Senior no 1, Europe: Junior no 1,
World: U18s no 6, U21s no 27
Junior European Top 12 2007 position: 1st
Style of play: Right hand topspin attack
Average training time per week: 30-36 hours
England debut junior: Aged 11 at a French training camp which incorporated a tournament
England debut senior: European League in Holland 2nd November 2004 |
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Paul playing at the European Youths |
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Is this to be the second time?
Paul Drinkhall is currently the hottest property in English table tennis. Highly regarded by those in the know he has the potential to become world class. “The ability of Drinkhall is almost frightening. Sometimes I am a little bit afraid,” admits Steen Kyst Hansen, the Danish-born performance director of the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA). “He is young and many things can happen but his talent is so big that everything is possible. I believe Paul may be on the verge of some exceptionally big results.”
The question is will one of these big results be here at the European Youth Top 10 Sheffield?
Credentials
Drinkhall, 18, is not only the top ranked junior in Europe but the senior English no. 1, the youngest player to reach such dizzy heights in over 45 years. When not winning tournaments he spends much of his time training at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield, or sparring against the best in the world in China.
Here is a lad who as a 16-year-old held three match points against reigning Olympic champion, Ryu Seung Min of South Korea before losing in seven sets.” To have beaten him would have been very special, indeed,” says Drinkhall, who is poised to break into the world’s top 200 (the latest published rankings go down to 1,284th) though still competing primarily in junior events. “I won the first set 11-6 after which I just smiled to myself, then when I won the second 11-7 I thought, ‘Hey, I can win this’. He won the next two 11-9, 11-7, I won the fifth 11-4 and led 9-6 to stand two points away from victory. I got a bit nervous then, suddenly I had no idea what shot to play and lost the next five points. In the deciding seventh set, I got to 10-7 then 10-8 and 10-9 when I had him running all over the place throwing up lobs. I really thought I had him when he put up another lob I didn’t think was coming over until it hit the very top of the net and dribbled on to my side of the table.”
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Journey to the top
Drinkhall first journeyed to China as an 11-year-old when he was invited to train at the world-renowned Shandong Table Tennis Centre, a daunting culture shock to a primary school kid to whom a day trip to Whitby represented something of an adventure. “It was difficult because there were five of us plus a coach, none of whom spoke a word of Chinese. Now when I go over they provide an English-speaking Chinese coach so we get everything we need.”
“But it was all pretty shocking on that first trip; the centre was more like a prison. It was a vast hot, crowded hall crammed with tables and surrounded by balconies where our rooms were. One of the lads who was about 13 came home after a week because he hated it so much, but the rest of us stuck it out. What I remember most about that first time was the food which was terrible - nothing like what I was used to from our local takeaway. The sticky rice was OK once you learned to use chopsticks but if you ate the meat - if that’s what it was - then you spent the whole of the next day in the loo.”
“In China, table tennis is more than a sport, it’s an escape route to a lot of the kids of 11 or 12 who go to Shandong because it’s a place where they get a roof over their heads, a clean room and hot food. But if you want to be the best - and my ambition is to win the gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012 - then you have to work and practise with the best and they happen to be in China.”
Increasing commitments
With his league commitments in Germany and assorted world travels, Drinkhall regrets that he does not spend as much time in his native north-east as he would like. “The way I see it, if I really want to be Olympic champion then I can’t do that by staying in England. Though you never know, one day the best players in the world might come to Sheffield to train with me…” this view is supported by Matthew Syed former England no 1 and current jounalist for The Times. “If Drinkhall can maintain his vertiginous progress — something that will depend on his own motivation and the quality of his training regime — he is almost certain to be a strong contender for gold at the London Olympics in 2012.”
So will he retain his title? Watch closely to find out.
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Paul celebrating win at the European Youths
with Darius Knight and Danny Reed |
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