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Malmo Open 2024

by ParaTTI News

The Malmo Open Parasport event took place between the 9th and 11th February in Sweden where Ireland sent twelve players compete in the table tennis event alongside representatives from Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and the UK.  This event is an annual highlight for our growing and improving Para Development Squad and this year was no different.  

Friday was the first day of action with the doubles event being played in the morning. Each of the Irish pairings acquitted themselves well and the rose to the challenge of the difficult doubles format. The best result of the standing doubles event was Seán Geoghegan and Aaron Mellows who lost out in the quarter final to the pairing of former Paralympic champion Will Bayley and Class 7 women’s European bronze medalist Bly Twomey who were representing Brighton TTC. The Irish team did however pick up their first medals of the competition in the Wheelchair doubles event where Gerry Commins and Kevin O’Callaghan teamed to take silver in the Plate final, losing out to another Brighton TTC pairing of Class 5 Paralympic bronze medalist Jack Hunter-Spivy and Jack Silberston.  

Friday afternoon saw the group stages of the Performance singles event which saw players placed in ‘banded’ groups based on ability level. Each of the Irish players put in some solid performances with progression to the knockout stages on Saturday morning being achieved by many. The highlight of the knockout stages was undoubtedly Sam Brennan who came through some tight five set matches to take the gold in the Performance 2 event defeating Swedish opposition in the final. Aaron Mellows and Seán Geoghegan lost out in the quarter finals of the higher Performance 1 event while Caoimhe Folan won a silver medal in the Performance 3 Plate losing in a tight five set final.  

Saturday afternoon saw five Irish players compete in the Youth (u15) and Junior (u19) boys events. Once again, each of the lads gave very good accounts of themselves with successful results being achieved. In the Junior boys event, Aaron Mellows secured a bronze medal, while Jude Sheldon took home the gold medal in the Plate event. Notably Jude completed a fantastic comeback win from 2-0 behind to win 3-2 in his plate semi-final match. Kevin O’Callaghan won his second silver medal of the tournament in the Junior Wheelchair event, while Sam Brennan went one step further to add a second gold medal to his collection in the U15 boys defeating Victor Gran from Sweden 3-1 in the final.  

The team was buoyed by the great success of the tournament and heading into the last events of the weekend; the Para Class events, confidence was high. Once again, the Irish team fought and competed well against the international opposition. In Class 1-3, Alicia Winter had two excellent wins to progress to the knockouts but bowed out with a loss in the quarters. In the same event, Kevin O’Callaghan performed brilliantly to take home the gold medal in the Plate and his third of the tournament overall. Gerry Commins was close to repeating that success in the Class 4-5 Plate final but had to settle for silver after defeat in a close match to Jack Silberston from Brighton. Positive results from the Irish players continued in the standing classes with Patrick Sweeney, Aaron Mellows and Patrick McCormack all qualifying for the knockout stages of Class 11.  Aaron progressed the furthest and was unfortunate to be drawn against the eventual winner Tobias Hansson. Aaron fought hard but lost out to Hansson in the quarter final. In the Class 11 plate, Aoife Kelly took home a fantastic bronze medal.  In Class 6, Des Ryan progressed as group winner, however missed out on a medal in the knockout stages. Caoimhe Folan in Class 7 came up just short of the medals in the plate event despite some good performances along the way. Sam Brennan continued his excellent form across the weekend to qualify from his Class 8 group but unfortunately a third medal was out of reach with defeat in the Last 16 while Jude Sheldon took him silver in the Class 8 plate. Seán Geoghegan was the most successful player on the final day of play with a run to the final of Class 8 losing out to the Class 8 World Number 3 and former European Champion Emil Andersson of Sweden in the final.  

In total the Irish team of twelve came home with thirteen medals and a clear improvement on results from last year with more players progressing to the knockout stages of events than previously. There is no doubt that the results achieved over the weekend highlight the bright future and potential of Irish para table tennis and each player conducted themselves excellently both on and off the table. A big thank you must go to National Para Coach Sam Logue and coaches Mick Cunningham and Tara Fusco who accompanied the team whose advice and support to the players was invaluable throughout the tournament. Thanks also to Para Managers Gavin Maguire and Eoin Kelly along with Sam for their continued support and development of the Para programme. Finally a special mention must go to the travelling parents and supporters whose support to the programme and dedication to their children cannot be understated and helped contribute to a fantastic weekend enjoyed by everyone. A compilation of videos taken across the weekend by Eoin Kelly to highlight the experience of the squad will be available to view on the Table Tennis Ireland YouTube channel soon so keep your eyes peeled for that! 

The development squad look forward to next year and once again trying to build upon results and performances.  

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Munster Masters Open 2024 – Report

by Para

The first event of 2024 was held in Palmerston on 6 January with a total entry of 97 across the 5 events, marginally more than Leinster. We had some withdrawals, mainly from illness/injury, including Messrs Burke, Caffrey, and Finn. Kieran would have been making his 70s debut. Oleg also withdrew, which left a gap in the 40s seedings. The number of competitors was 13 ladies, 18 40s, 25 50s, 28 60s, and 13 70s.

Generally it wasn’t a good day for No.1 seeds. Susan is ranked 1 in the Ladies. She came safely through to the semis but ran into the unseeded Rita, who had missed the first 3 events. Rita had beaten Sharon 8 4 5, and then dropped a game before beating Susan 7 -8 6 8.

In the bottom half Anne Marie beat Catherine Morrissey 5 8 8, but then Ger beat her in 3 close games 7 10 13.

Rita won her first event of the season, beating Ger in a high quality match 10 9 7.

The 40s was one of several occasions during the day when players met twice with the results being reversed second time around. Rory’s “reward” for winning group A in the absence of Oleg was to go straight to Daryl who had lost in his group to Artur. Daryl won 3-1, with the 3rd game crucial, 6 -8 11 4. Rita made her way to the semi with a win over Rod 9 8 7, but Daryl was victorious against her 8 4 9.

2nd seed “fast Phil” lived dangerously in the last 8 against Pat who had come through 3-1 against Tibor. Pat won the first 2 games, the 3rd was 9, and then Pat led 10-8 in the 5th. Scores were -9 -8 9 5 10. Artur had a surprisingly comfortable win over Eduardo who was playing his first Masters event of the season, 3 5 6. In the semi-final, Artur  beat Phil 7 10 7. Phil’s consolation is that he is now ranked 1 in the 40s (and also the Ulster 40s for good measure).

In the first of the day’s reverses however, Daryl beat Artur 3 9 5. After losing in the group Daryl was always in control in the final and imposed his game on Artur throughout.

Moving on to the 50s, top seed was Pat who reached the semi with a straight sets win over Rod, who had beaten him in the 40s, the scores were 8 7 5. This was a half totally dominated by Ulster players, with considerable local rivalry and “bragging rights”! Rod had beaten Mark 3-0, Des dropped a game to Gus and another to travelling companion Sean who he beat 5 10 -7 6. Pat reached the final by beating Des -6 5 7 7.

In the bottom half Daryl reached the semi with an unusually comprehensive win over Philip Shaw. Philip is so unorthodox and normally troubles Daryl, but this time it was 2 7 5. Philip had squeezed through in the last 8 against Fergal O’Hagan 5 -10 -10 4 9. Tibor’s route to the semi was a 3-1 victory over Dave Gibbons and a recovery from a 2-1 deficit against Dave Pender (good to see you back Dave) with the scores 2 -8-8 8 4. Tibor nearly always raises his game whenever he plays Daryl, who was relieved to win the second game at deuce after losing the first, scores were -7 10 6 6.

The final was a classic. Pat played superbly, Daryl struggled to put the ball past him, Pat can be vulnerable on his backhand but he was as steady as a rock. The first 4 games were shared, at the start of the fifth it was hard to pick a winner. It’s been said before (possibly by me!) that Daryl always finds a way. When Pat led 4-2 it looked as if this might be the exception. The next 3 points were absolutely game-changing. Pat’s return of serve had been almost perfect, Daryl caught him with 2 serves, and then Pat served off. Change ends 5-4. The momentum had swung, Daryl literally made no mistakes and a 4-2 deficit became an 11-4 victory. Scores were 6 -8 7 -9 4. The very difficult double of 40s and 50s had been achieved, at almost 1030pm – another record!

On the other hand, the 60s is becoming a procession. Des has won all 4 events so far, and has rarely looked troubled. Top seed obviously, he beat Kariem 8 4 7 and Sean 3 2 7 to win through to the final. In the bottom half Gus Agnew was the surprise package. Playing in his first 60s event, he won his group with a win over Kariem, then beat Breandan O’Fiaich in 5 games, -11 8 -8 6 6, Breandan had a good day and had put out Jim Storey. Philip beat Tommy Fitzgerald in 5 and Barry Dickson in 3 deuce games 10 10 10, before ending Gus’ day in the semi 4 8 5.

Des lost the first game of the final to Philip but was relatively untroubled after that, winning  -6 5 9 8.

The last event was the 70s, again a bad day for the top seed, this time Norman. Jim Storey got better as the day went on, and was a deserved but close winner over Norman in the last 8, coming from 2 games down and a deuce in the fourth. His renowned forehand rarely missed and his backhand was consistent. The scores were -5 -16 9 10 8. Ken Peare was his next “victim” and Jim won 6 9 7. In the bottom half Jeremy beat David Jacobson 8 7 3, and Barry Dickson beat Jack O’Meara 8 5 6. Matches between Jeremy and Barry are inevitably 5 games, frequently deuce, but not this time. Jeremy played a more controlled game than his usual, and won 9 10 7.

The final ebbed and flowed. Jeremy and Jim had met in the group with Jeremy coming out on top. Jim took a 2-set lead, Jeremy won the next 2, Jim had a lead in the 5th, Jeremy fought back to 8-8 and looked favourite. Unusually Jim then played a more cautious game and won 3 of the last 4 points, scores were 6 7 -7 -7 9. Jim was buzzing, saying it was the first 70s title he had won.

Next event in this travelling “circus” is the St. Anne’s Ulster Masters at Dungannon on 17 February This was excellently run last year by “Rod’s motley crew”, make sure you get your entries in as soon as the forms are out. Book early to avoid disappointment, as they say.

And finally, we always appreciate the stalwarts at the top table, most of whom combine their duties with playing. Thanks to Dave and Sharon, Ger, Anne Marie and especially Lorraine.

REPORT BY NORMAN NABNEY

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Report: St Noet’s Para Open Championships

by ParaTTI News

Three players from the TTI Para Development Squad travelled to the British Para Open Championships in St Noets in the UK last weekend.  Kevin O’Callaghan, Jude Sheldon and Des Ryan were accompanied by coach Mick Cunningham. Kevin played very well in Class 4, this being his first Para competition outside of Ireland, and showed lots of potential going forward. He made it to two semi-finals where he won two bronze medals. Likewise Jude played very well in class 8 and got to two semi-finals but lost in very close games. Des was carrying an injury which did not allow him to play at his very best in class 6. All told the travel, early starts and the concentration of games into one day made a great demand on the players’ focus and concentration, but it was a great learning experience.

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Colin Judge wins Bronze at ITTF SQY French Para Open

by ParaTTI News

The ITTF SQY French Para Open took place on from 9th – 11th November 2023. Colin Judge and Paddy Vaughan were in action in the Mens singles class 3 and class 7 event.

Day one of the event saw the group matches take place. Paddy Vaughan lost his first two games against Despineux (BEL) and Rosenast (SWI). He won his last game against Dourbecker (FRA) to finish 3rd in his group.

Colin Judge started his event with a 3-0 win against Sincar (TUR) before an impressive win against world number 5 Jenson Van Emburgh (USA) 3-0. In his last group game he stayed unbeaten with a 3-0 win against Geuljans (FRA).

As a result of finishing top of his group Colin got a bye into the quarter final were he beat Svatos (CZP) 3-1 to secure bronze medal.

Unfortunately Colin’s tournament ended with a 3-0 defeat in the semi-final against Panfeng (CHI).

Overall it was a very impressive performance from Colin who managed to not drop a set in the group stages and the highlight was beaten world number 5! This is another step to his journey to Paris 2024.

Special mention to Sam Logue who travelled as coach for Paddy and Colin.

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National Para Coach Report

by ParaTTI News

National Para coach Sam Louge has created the following report on recent activities within National Para Table Tennis this year.

High Performance:

After competing in Montenegro, Slovenia and Poland in May Colin Judge took a break for 2 weeks.

Since coming back he has trained consistently. Colin performed quite well in Montenegro, while harbouring an injury. He lost in the quarter final to the world no.1 Feng Panfeng but had some good wins against German and French opposition enroute to the Quarter finals. Colin participated in Slovenia alone and it was a difficult tournament for him going out in the group stage. In Poland Colin performed very well implementing some stylistic changes enroute to winning his group and beating world no.8 in the semi-final. In a good performance in the final, where he held a match point, he unfortunately lost 2-3 to Ciric from Serbia. Colin will attend a training camp in Slovakia in August before heading to the European championships in Shefield in early September.

Development/Pathway:

Sean Geoghegan played in the Montenegro Open and was reclassified from class 9 to class 8 which was a big win for him. In the tournament Sean was unsuccessful in his singles group losing in straight sets in his three matches. In the doubles with Britain’s Ryan Henry, Sean won one match and lost two. Paddy Vaughan and Conor O’Callaghan competed in the Polish Open. Paddy had a great tournament winning two matches in his group, one of which against the eventual runner up of the tournament. Paddy lost to the group winner and eventual tournament winner 0-3 which meant he lost out on countback and did not progress to the main draw. Conor had a difficult tournament losing both matches in his group 0-3. Paddy and Conor together reached the quarter final of the men’s doubles 14 event with a good win against Hong Kong opposition in their group. Paddy also reached the quarter final of the mixed doubles event with his Spanish partner. They lost a close 3-2 encounter to lose out on a medal.

The Development and Pathway Squads attended a training camp in Brighton TTC in August. This was a fantastic experience for all of the players. In attendance were Paddy Vaughan, Sean Geoghegan, Aaron Mellows, Jude Sheldon, Caoimhe Folan and Des Ryan. World no.1 class 7 player Will Bayley was present for all sessions and gave time and advice to everyone. The club made sure there were extra coaches and sparring partners there for all sessions. This trip provided the players with an opportunity to train two sessions per day for three days in a row in a focused environment which they normally don’t get. This is great learning for these players to see what needs to be done and how it needs to be done to get to the next level. Being in the company of a world and paralympic champion, Will was perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the camp. The players got to play with him, see him train and hear him speak. This is invaluable experience. Will’s enthusiasm and incredible work ethic along with his undeniable love for the game was infectious and the players responded well to being around him. The club’s manager, Tim, along with Will, left no stone unturned in looking after us and making sure we were happy. This is a relationship we will develop going forward.

Performance and Pathway Plans:

Colin, Paddy and Sean will attend a training camp in Slovakia with national teams from Spain, Slovakia and Serbia. This was organised with Montenegro open tournament director Alexandra Dragasova. This will be a preparation camp for the European championships for Colin and Paddy.

The goal for Colin is a medal. On the back of a great performance in Poland and great work in the training hall, this is an appropriate goal for him. The goal for Paddy is to win at least one match in his group. Paddy has the ability to trouble most players in his class but this is his first major championship in a long time.

 

 

 

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Report: Malmo Parasport Event 10-12 February 2023

by International EventsParaTTI News

Mark Twain wrote “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts”. By that yardstick we travelled well in attending the 2023 Malmo Parasport Event in Sweden this past weekend. The table tennis event saw a record entry of 160 participants from 10 countries – Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, UK, Austria, Jordan, Hungary and Iceland. So much so that the event had to be moved from the main Malmo stadium to the sports hall at Hasthagens where the lack of live streaming and interaction with the wider selection of parasport games devalued the player and supporter experience somewhat.

Nevertheless, the Development Squad put 13 players into the field – the largest Irish entry in the three visits to Malmo to date since 2019 – and we enjoyed our best results in the competition standings to date winning 15 medals in total across the three days.

On Friday Team Ireland won 3 medals , which included a gold medal for Alicia Winter in the seated doubles plate final – her partner was Heinrik Andersson from Austria. Jude Sheldon and Sam Brennan won silver in the standing doubles plate final. So, a good start for the Development Squad.

Saturday saw three general classification and four junior/youth singles categories on offer where 5 medals were won. Patrick McCormick won a bronze medal as a semi-finalist in the morning’s category 3 plate event. The afternoon saw Caoimhe Folan winning the junior girls plate event and Jude Sheldon semi-finalist in the junior boys plate event, Sam Brennan semi-finalist in the youth event and Alicia Winter third in the youth/class 1-5 events.

Sunday proved to be our most successful day with seven medals across classes 1 to 11. Alicia continued her good form with winning the plate final in class 1-3. Conor O Callaghan reached the semi-finals in class 6, while Des Ryan won a bronze medal in the class 6 plate competition. Class 7 saw a brilliant performance by Paddy Vaughan who made it to the final, beating some higher ranked players along the way, but found the current world no 1 and multiple paralympic champion, Will Bayley, too strong in the final. Hello??? Will Bayley!! Back on earth in class 8 both Jude and David McCaughern won bronze medals in the plate competition. In class 9-10 Sean Geoghegan went two steps better and won the plate final. Finally, while we did not have any medallists in class 11, performances since 2020 did improve with strong last 8 achievements in the main event for Aaron Mellows and for Aoife Kelly in the plate competition.

Overall, our most successful player was Alicia Winter with two gold and one bronze with special mention to Jude Sheldon with one silver and two bronze. 15 medals represent a 70% increase on our 2020 medals total and taking the significant improvement in the number of quarter finals achieved – 11 versus 5 in 2020 – the curve for the Para Development Squad is firmly upward.

The investment of the coaches, Sam Logue, Mick Cunningham and Ashley Robinson, along with Para Manager, Gavin Maguire, in the monthly training camps and the complimentary support of the parents/family members is paying off. A big thank you to them all and we look forward to more international competitions and training camps abroad in the future with funding support from TTI. While it hardly needs to be said that what happened in Malmo stays in Malmo, a special shout must go out to Mick Cunningham for his indefatigable good humour throughout the 4 days – his early (very early) morning wake up calls apart (tip no 1: don’t book a room beside his). Finally, the Para Committee will be awarding a specially commissioned St Christopher’s medal to Des ahead of his next trip abroad with the Squad

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Para Squad at the 2023 Malmo Open

by International EventsParaTTI News

The following players have accepted their selection for the Malmo Open Games, in Sweden. The team travel to Sweden from the 8th – 13th of February.

  • Sam Brennan
  • Caoimhe Folan
  • Seán Geoghegan  
  • Aoife Kelly
  • David McCaughern  
  • Patrick McCormick 
  • Aaron Mellows 
  • Conor O’Callaghan  
  • Des Ryan
  • Jude Sheldon
  • Patrick Sweeney
  • Paddy Vaughan
  • Alicia Winter

The Malmo Open is known as the European Para Sport Games, one of the top events in Europe for Para Athletes. We are very excited to have our para players competing in this prestigious event and representing Ireland in the table tennis event.

We would like to wish the very best of luck to all our players and Coaches Sam Logue and Mick Cunningham who travel to the Malmo Open with the squad!

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NRH Sports Champs

by ParaTTI News

From the 7th-10th of November, the National Rehabilition Hospital hosted their 9th Annual Sports Champs. Which saw the inpatients compete amongst a wide variety of sports throughout the week. There were many sporting events on offer, such as swimming, archery, rock climbing and lots more. Table Tennis is amongst one of the many great sports on offer.

Over the past year we have collaborated with the NRH delivering training programmes to the patients within the NRH. These have been a fantastic success, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration.

The table tennis event at the NRH was amazing. There was approximately 50+ registered patients for table tennis from all 4 rehabilitation programmes (NRH Spinal Programme, NRH Brain Injury Programme, NRH Limb Absence Programme and NRH Paediatric Programme). Our umpires John Dempsey and Terri McKeon assisted with volunteering and umpiring at the event and provided plenty of tips and encouragement to the table tennis players. The standard of the playing at the table tennis event was superb, the sessions proving useful. Congratulations and well done to all the players on a great competition, we hope to see some of you take part in some of our events!

John Dempsey and Terri McKeon at the NRH

We would like to thank the NRH Staff for inviting us to be a part of this fabulous event, it is great invite for the patients and volunteers to be involved in. Well done to all the patients, staff, volunteers and everyone for a wonderful week of sport. We look forward to the 10th Annual Sports Champs next year!