After a well fought semi final, Paralympic first timers Bly Twomey and Fliss Pickard secured a bronze medal in the women’s class 14 event, the first for ParalympicGB in the table tennis in Paris.

Men’s class 14 World Champions Paul Karabardak and Billy Shilton started their bid for the Paralympic title with a 3-0 win in the last 16 against the class 7 French pair of Kevin Dourbecker and Stephane Messi and they are joined in tomorrow’s quarterfinals by Will Bayley and Martin Perry who were 3-0 winners against Thomas Rau and Bjoern Schnake from Germany.

There was disappointment for Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey as they lost a tight first-round match in men’s class 18 to the Polish combination of class 8 European bronze medallist Maksym Chudzicki and class 10 World number five Igor Misztal but Stacey then showed his character to combine with Twomey to win their first-round match in mixed class 17 and go through to the last 16 tonight.

The packed stands in the South Paris Arena Hall 4 created an incredible atmosphere with the noise deafening at times – particularly when a French pair were in action supported by the passionate home crowd drumming their feet on the floor and strains of ‘La Marseillaise’ and chants of ‘Allez Les Bleus’ echoing around the arena.

Women’s class 14
Fliss Pickard and Bly Twomey saved two set points at 10-8 down before taking a tight first set against Nora Korneliussen and Jenny Slettum from Norway 12-10 with Twomey celebrating the winning point with a shout of ‘Let’s Go!’ Despite Pickard taking a heavy fall at 5-5 they came back from 9-7 down to take the second 11-9 before completing a 3-0 win 11-3 in the third and secure at least a bronze medal.
“It felt amazing,” said Twomey, “the atmosphere and everyone supporting me. Just to play with Fliss is a massive achievement for me and I’m just really proud to be her doubles partner. I tried my best to block a bit of the noise out, but I just tell myself they’re cheering for me. I’m really proud to get a medal at my first Paralympic Games and it means a lot as I’m only 14.”

For Pickard after the heartbreak of missing out on Tokyo, her first experience of a Paralympic Games was worth the wait. “It was all I’d expected and more,” she said. “To think I’m now a Paralympic medallist is just unbelievable after everything I’ve been through. I never thought I’d be able to get to this position and even a few weeks ago I questioned myself. But I’m here now with the legend that is Bly and the unbelievable coach that is Andrew Rushton who has got me through everything – the highs and the really low lows but here we are and we’re Paralympic medallists as a three.”

“We’re going to go out fighting and graft for every ball tonight,” said Pickard ahead of their semi final against Huang Wenjuan and Jin Yucheng from China, “and I think that now we’ve enjoyed the atmosphere we know what it is about we’ll free up and play our game. We’ll go out there as a three again and fight to the end.” After taking the first set 11-6 in a very promising start, the Chinese pair clawed their way back to take the remaining sets necessary to secure a spot in the gold medal match (11-6, 11-3, 11-6).

British Para table tennis head coach Andrew Rushton was delighted to secure a medal for his team with their first match; “It’s a unique experience,” he said. “First match, first medal with two players who were playing their first match at a Paralympic Games. I think they played brilliantly to deal with the noise and the atmosphere but I’m just super proud of both of them. We’ve done a lot over these last couple of years together as a team and to see it pay off like that is a dream.”

Men’s class 14
Billy Shilton and Paul Karabardak had to face the raucous home crowd as well as their French opponents Kevin Dourbecker and Stephane Messi but after taking the first two sets 11-8 12-10 they grew in confidence and finished strongly to take the third 11-4 for a 3-0 win. They will play the Brazilian pair of Paulo Salmin and Israel Pereira Stroh in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” said Shilton. “I came in a bit before our match and watched the girls play and I just wanted to listen to it to be honest just to get a feel for the noise and how loud it was. I think it was a lot louder in the stands with everyone stamping their feet than being on the court. To play in front of a French crowd against a French pair was very difficult but I think the way we handled it today was superb and I’m really happy. We were trying to be as consistent as possible at the start of the match and I think we executed the game plan really well so I’m buzzing.”

“It was crazy,” said Karabardak, “the French fans were really loud, but I think it was really good from us to go out and deliver that sort of performance. I’ve never played with such a passionate fan base as is there today and it is really nice for Para table tennis. I’m really happy – we started slowly but I think you grow into the game and we maybe didn’t hit the heights that I know we can here but I think we still played very well and we did enough to win the match quite comfortably which is really pleasing.”

Will Bayley and Martin Perry were also 3-0 winners (11-9 11-4 11-9) against Thomas Rau and Bjoern Schnake from Germany and will play European champions and number two seeds Clement Berthier and Esteban Herrault from France in the quarterfinals.

“The atmosphere reminds me a little bit of London 2012,” said Bayley. “I was sitting in the stands this morning watching the girls play and I couldn’t wait to get out there and enjoy it. It felt special to be playing and I think tomorrow will feel even more special playing in front of a home crowd playing the best doubles team that France have got in this competition. That’s going to be really exciting, and I can’t wait.

“I’m so happy with the way we played – we spoke beforehand and said we’ve got to do what we do and do the basics and we’ll be hard to beat. We didn’t really overcomplicate things and that’s what we do – we try to get the W without any kind of dramas. We did really well to focus and stay on task – they played some really nice shots as well to give them credit and we played really well.”

For Perry on his Paralympic debut, it was the perfect start. “It was amazing walking out,” he said. “I was a bit nervous because there are a lot of fans out there but Will said ‘come on, you can do this, you’ve got this’ and it just gives you belief. I made a couple of mistakes early on and Will turned around and said, ‘don’t worry, you’ve got the next ball’ and its good to have Will alongside me just feeding me those little notes of confidence and knowing that he believes in me. After that I felt like I was standing 10 feet tall and we fought for every ball together and we played some good stuff and to finally get to play a match at a Paralympic Games means so much to me.”

Men’s class 18
Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey were bitterly disappointed to lose a tight last 16 match to the strong Polish combination of Maksym Chudzicki and Igor Misztal. They led 1-0 and 2-1 but after losing a crucial fourth set 11-9 they lost the deciding fifth 11-3.

“We played them a few months ago in Czechia and we won 3-2 so we knew it was going to be tough,” said McKibbin. “It’s a Paralympic Games so you only have tough matches. We had a hard draw, but I think we felt very confident as we’ve been playing very well. I loved the atmosphere – it was really fun to be out there, but it is just very disappointing because I really thought Josh and me had a chance of winning the whole thing or at least getting on the podium. I don’t think they played amazingly – if they beat you by playing amazingly then you can say fair enough but to lose the sets that we lost makes it a bit harder to take. In Czechia they did play amazingly, and we still won. We played well in patches today but just not enough to win.”

“I think in the fourth set we were down 7-4 and forced a time out,” said Stacey. “The tide started to turn from 8-8 all – we had two really big rallies and we were on top but didn’t quite take either of them. We nicked another point to go 9-10 and if it had flipped we’d have won the match but that is table tennis. You can be on top in 99% of the points you play and still lose them all.”

Men’s class 4
In men’s class 4 Rob Davies and Tom Matthews had a last 16 bye but lost a tough quarterfinal against the number one seeds Jang Yeongjin and Park Sung Joo from Korea Republic 3-0.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” said Davies. “We’d been hearing it in the warmup area so it sort of prepared us for it and I really enjoyed it. I know the result wasn’t what we wanted but the atmosphere was unreal, and it was all about getting out there and trying to play like we can but it was always going to be difficult against the number one seeds. Tom and I are both playing really well and I can’t wait to play again so let’s go in the singles now.”

Matthews will use this experience in his mixed doubles match with Megan Shackleton this evening.
“It was crazy,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve actually played in front of a crowd, so it was an amazing experience and doing it alongside Rob was even more special. To get the experience and play on the table with that crowd is a bit different and I’ll speak to Megan and tell her what to expect but we’ll go out there and give it our best. It’s going to be difficult match again obviously with me being a class 1 against class 3s, 4s and 5s but we’ll put up a fight and give it our all.”

Mixed class 17
Joshua Stacey and Bly Twomey progressed to the last 16 this evening with a 3-1 win against Kayode Alabi and Faith Obazuaye from Nigeria.

“I’m very happy,” said Stacey. “Obviously playing with Bly as opposed to Aaron is very different. I know that I’ve got to be a bit more of a risk taker when I’m playing with Bly, but I know she will give it everything and she’s always very solid which helps. When I am taking those risks the match can then fall upon how solid she is so I just really enjoy playing with her to be honest.”

“Playing with Josh in mixed doubles is just amazing,” said Twomey, “and I’m really proud to play with him. I’ve never played in anything like this atmosphere and it’s really amazing.”

Photos by Michael Loveder.