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So near yet so far from winning medals in the land where Table Tennis is as big as Premier League football and taxi drivers talk of Deng Yaping, Ma Lin and Kong Lingui like Beckham and Giggs at home!
The stadium, a cauldron of passion and dedicated fans, was the Peking University Gymnasium, a brand new home of table tennis for 7,500 spectators and a shrine to Chinese success over recent decades, every wall you pass a reminder of Chinese success.
In the team events, the Class 3 Men’s team of Arnie Chan, James Rawson and Neil Robinson and the Women’s Class 1-3 team of Cathy Mitton and Dzaier Neil came so close to winning a bronze medal, but both lost out in the play-offs and finished fourth.
The Men won their first match against Liberia 3–0 and then lost their semi-final against France 3–0, but there were big chances with GB leading in all matches and having four match points in one of the rubbers. In the bronze medal match we lost 1-3 to China with James winning against Zhao Ping. Neil opened the match against the singles gold medallist Peng Feng and was leading 2–0, then 2-1 and 9 all in the fourth, eventually losing out in the fifth. It was the same story in the doubles, where James and Neil were leading 2–1 and lost in the fifth set.
All the members of the Men’s Class 3 team were honoured by the ITTF as three of the ten had played in six Paralympics or more - and they were featured on BBC2 and on the official Beijing TT website.
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The Women’s Class 3 team of Cathy Mitton and Dzaier Neil scored a good victory over Iran 3-2 in the quarters, to reach the semi-finals and play Italy where they lost a hard fought game 3–0. In the bronze medal match GB lost 3-0 to France, with Cathy losing a very tight match in five sets to LaFaye.
The Men’s Class 6–8 team of Wetherill, Bayley and Karabardak lost to the winners China in the last 16 of the event.
The Women’s Class 4 team of Sue Gilroy and Claire Robertson lost 3-0 to Serbia in a very close match with two five setters going against GB.
In the individual class events there were some world class and great performances, this included Dave Wetherill winning the first match of the event against ex-Class 6 gold medallist Rainer Schmidt of Germany, he also beat a Brazillian 3–0 before losing to the no 1 seed Kowalski of Poland eight in the fifth set. The last match of the group for a place in the semi-finals was Schmidt v Kowlaski, any result other than 3–0 to Schmidt would see Wetherill go through, but Schmidt was incredible, winning 3–0 and then going through with a 1.33 average versus Wetherill’s 1.25; following the use of the ITTF calculation method, it must be the only sport where 5-4 sets is worse than 4-3 sets!
Paul Karabardak had a tough group and lost to Ye of China (eventual silver) pushing him all the way in all three sets, Paul had a match point against Morales of Spain (current European Champion Class 7) but did not take his chance, eventually losing in five sets. His final match was a classic counter-hitting encounter with Lambert of the Czech Republic, Paul winning a great match 3–1.
Will Bayley drew the group of death with the eventual winner Jochen Wollmert of Germany, Paralympic and World Champion, Popov of Ukraine the best player all year in Class 7 and Shur of Israel. In a live TV match beamed on the side of some of the biggest buildings in Beijing and the world, Bayley pushed Wollmert to 3 deuces, but eventually lost 3–0. He had a tremendous war with Popov losing 11–9 in the fifth, before he demolished Shur of Israel in the final group match.
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James Rawson seeded 9 in Class 3 somehow managed to lose his first match against Unger of Austria 3–0, leading 10-6 and 10-8 in the first sets but could not close the door. The Brazilian in the group, Da Silva, won against Unger 3–0, setting up a great finale with Rawson; knowing he had to win 3–0 losing less than 20 points, James managed a 2–0 lead, but knew he could not win when 7-7 in the third set, he eventually won 3-1, but went out on the ITTF rule. Da Silva eventually lost in the bronze medal play-off in the Class 3 singles.
Arnie Chan who was 13 weeks out from shoulder reconstruction surgery and did brilliantly even to compete, led the eventual bronze medallist Pinas of Spain 2-1 but lost 3–2, and then lost to Kylevik of Sweden to exit at the group stages.
Neil Robinson prepared for the first match with his Liberian opponent like a final, only for the Liberian to confuse the match time and be scratched; the final qualifying game was against Gulheim of France which Neil won 3-1. The last 16 saw Neil surprised by a clinical Da Silva of Brazil losing 3–0.
Sue Gilroy started brilliantly beating the Serbian Matic, the most improved player in the world this year 3–0, the next game a simple win against a South African and then the big match versus the no 1 seed Zhou of China. Sue beat her in 2006 but could not repeat this, losing 3–1 in another live match, she had chances to level at 2–2 and take it to a fifth, Zhou eventually strolled to gold. |
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Claire Robertson with Matt Kenny |
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Claire Robertson gave her all in her first games losing to Zoretto of Italy 3–1, had she not been nervous maybe the outcome would have been a different one. The next was, finally she lost to Obiwara of Nigeria.
Cathy Mitton started the event with a good win over Gossiaux of France before losing the quarter-final match against Lui Jing of China. Cathy was in a strong position, leading 1–0 before losing some very tight games to go out 3–1. Jing, the favourite for the event, cut through the remaining players to win gold in the Women’s Class 2 singles.
Dzaier Neil, another amazing character who was hospitalised for six weeks only a month before the Games, gave the crowd a great match against the no 1 seed Podda of Italy, losing nine in the fifth. Dzaier then lost to Clott of France to finish third in the group, Podda eventually winning a bronze medal.
China dominated the event as they did in the Olympics - no surprises there, but big improvements in the number of medals won in the Paralympic Games, stealing many from Germany, France and Korea. It was only Korea who stopped a clean sweep of team events for China at the Games! |
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The players selected from the BTTAD squad for Team GB - Table Tennis at the Beijing Paralympics 2008 were:
Women
Sue Gilroy, Cathy Mitton, Dzaier Neil,
Clare Robertson
Men
Will Bayley, Arnie Chan, Paul Karabardak,
James Rawson, Scott Robertson, Neil Robinson, Dave Wetherill
Staff
Sarah De Lacey Munday, Greg Baker,
Andrew Horsfield, Matt Kenny, Steve Ward
More news on the Paralympics here
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