The British pair lost their quarterfinal this morning to the hugely experienced Chinese pair of class 8 three-time Paralympic champion Zhao Shuai and three-time class 8 Paralympic champion Mao Jingdian, who now plays in class 9.

After losing the first set 11-3 the GB pair fought back well in the second and led 9-4 but Zhao and Mao used all their combined experience to edge their way back and after taking the set 12-10 they secured a 3-0 win 11-5 in the third.

“I think they seem very comfortable as a pair,” said Stacey, “as to how to navigate a game and make sure they are both getting their strengths in, and I think they did that very well. They played the right table tennis at the right moments which obviously with the experience they have you’d expect them to. I wouldn’t say their quality was unbelievably good, but everything was just very solid and when they needed to they played the right balls at the right times.

“Being me and Bly’s second tournament ever and with Bly being 14 we’ve got a lot of improvement to come over the years and with that and having more experience of playing with each other it will eventually come good, and we’ll be beating those kinds of players.”

Twomey can look back on her two doubles events at her first Paralympics with great pride.

“I’m very pleased that we got to the quarterfinals,” she said, “and to play them was just amazing and playing with Josh makes it even better. I didn’t think I was going to be standing on the podium at my first Paralympics and I’m very proud to say I’m a bronze medallist with Fliss Pickard and I wish I could do it with Josh but today wasn’t our day.”

Both Stacey and Twomey will now focus on their respective singles events which start on September 3.

Media Enquiries:

For further information please contact the British Para Table Tennis Team media officer Francesca Bullock on +44 7768 515841 or email: [email protected]

Photography by Michael Loveder