Ray Dixon, Betty Bird and Simon Heaps were the English gold medallists at the ITTF World Masters Championships in Rome, with several silvers, bronzes and consolation medals to celebrate as well.

The competition featured 6,100 competitors, aged from 40 to 99, representing 110 member associations. Click here to visit the event website and check out all the results.

Dixon, alongside Wales’ Dennis Bromage (pictured above), won the MD85 category with a thrilling comeback against Swiss pair Horst Iffland & Horst Schweigers, finally completing a 3-2 (9-11, 12-14, 11-7, 11-2, 11-4) victory in the final.

Bird & Marianne Blasberg of Germany claimed the WD90 class with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-9) victory over Czech-Swedish pairing of Andela Potuckova & Ragnhilkd Lundberg.

The two champions met in the WS90 final, and it was Blasberg who took the title with a 3-0 (11-1, 11-5, 12-10) scoreline.

Para categories were held in the competition for the first time and Heaps won gold alongside Italy’s Davide Scazzieri in the class 2-5 doubles. The pair won all three of their matches 3-0 in the round-robin competition.

Robin Stace & Sally Bax took silver in the XD80 as they were defeated 3-1 (11-8, 11-3, 10-12, 11-5) in the final by Chinese pair Jiang Zhaozaho & Ai Zeyu.

There was also a silver for Victor Guang Shi and his French partner Thomas Guignat in the MD40. In a switchback final, they were defeated 3-2 (11-9, 11-13, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8) by Julien Tietropaoli of France & Lucian Filimon of Romania.

Marjorie Dawson, playing in the WD75 alongside neutral competitor Larisa Ilinskaia, went out in the semi-finals, 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7) to Colette Le Corvec & Martin Pontille of France and so won bronze medals.

A bronze was also won by Lorestas Trumpauskas, playing in the XD50 class alongside Angela Tian of the USA. They lost 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-7) in the semi-finals to Gregory Goedaer & Agnes Le Lannic of France.

Wales’ Michael Marsden’s defence of the MD40 title, alongside new partner Pawel Orzechowski of England, ended in the round of 16, where they were defeated 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-8) by Dariusz Steuer & Jaroslaw Tomicki of Poland.

In the consolation events, Peter France & Kimmy Lai-Brown won the XD50 gold thanks to a 3-2 (9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5) victory over Karl Stumpfecker & Petra Jordan of Switzerland.

Chris Clinton & Simon Pugh won the MD55 consolation gold, beating Sweden’s Stefan Hammarstedt & Magnus Skarbo 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8) in the final.

Dennis Gibbs & Penny Perry won the XD70 consolation gold, defeating Ulrich Spinger (Germany) & Yang Huixin (China) 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 11-9) in the final.

But there was defeat in the final of the XD75 for Stuart Sweeney, alongside Waltraud Weiss of Austria. They were beaten 3-1 (11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 11-6) by Weiss’ compatriots Franz Matejka & Herta Meinhart.

Philip Bowen was defeated 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-9) in the final of the MS70 consolation, by Alfred Vodusek of Slovenia.

Vodusek, alongside compatriot Ciril Kozjek, also won the MD70 consolation, against Paul Stead & Leif Cruuka of Sweden. The scoreline was 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-3).

Stead & Cruuka had a good semi-final win, 3-2 (8-11, 12-10, 3-11, 14-12, 11-9) over Boon Kiew Chan & Ki Cheung Yuen of Hong Kong.