British Para Table Tennis Pathway athletes Max Flint, Bailey Page and Dan Thomson will be competing in the seventh European Para Youth Games which are taking place in Istanbul, Turkey from July 25-27.

First held in 2011 in the Czech Republic, the European Para Youth Games is an international multi-sport competition for athletes with a disability that is designed to help develop the Paralympic movement and provide a foundation for growth, allowing young athletes to develop their skills, gain confidence, and experience high-level competition. This year’s event is set to be the biggest yet, featuring 33 countries and nearly 650 athletes.

Table tennis is one of the founding sports of the European Para Youth Games, having been on the programme of the first edition in 2011. It is one of nine sports featured this year – alongside archery, athletics, boccia, goalball, judo, taekwondo, swimming and wheelchair basketball -and is open to athletes from the age of 12-23.

Max Flint, 21, from Guildford (pictured above) reached the final of the men’s class 10 singles at the US Open in 2023 and took bronze in the French Open last year. He is currently studying maths and sport science at Loughborough University.

“I am extremely proud to represent GB at the European Para Youth Games,” he said, “and want to do well not only for myself but also for all the people who have supported my journey.

“I am most looking forward to being in an environment with elite para-athletes from a variety of sports and seeing if I can learn from certain things they do involving preparation, recovery etc. My main hope is to perform at my best level and to enjoy the Games. I will try to take everything in and learn from the experience.”

Bailey Page, 18, from Plymouth made his international debut in Montenegro last year and won his first medal at the World Para Future Lahti in Finland in April, taking bronze in the men’s class 14 doubles with Dan Thomson.

“I’m looking forward to seeing an opening ceremony,” he said, “and also seeing other sports and how they prepare for their events – maybe I will see something I can take away relative to table tennis. 

“Representing GB at any event is special to me but this is certainly the biggest event so far. I take great pride in competing for my country; it is something I worked very hard to achieve but this is hopefully just the beginning and will prepare me for future events. I always take one game at a time – I just want to play my best level and hopefully that is enough to achieve some good results.”

Dan Thomson, 20, from Brighton also took silver in the men’s class 6 singles in Finland and is based in Sheffield where he combines training with the British squad and studying quantity surveying at Sheffield Hallam University.

“I’m looking forward to meeting athletes from other sports and seeing other people with different disabilities,” he said. “It means a lot to be able to represent GB at the Games because it will be like a mini Paralympic Games so it will be good to represent GB alongside other sports.

“My hopes for the competition are to put what I’ve been working on in training into the matches and to enforce my style of play onto my opponents.”