Ireland’s Owen Cathcart is going through a purple spell of form this season, and has just added to his growing medal tally with a fine performance at the Malacky Slovakian Open. Following a week long training camp in Slovakia, Cathcart travelled to the tournament with a solid block of hard training and demanding technical work completed.
In the Team Event, Owen was partnered with a lithuanian player and they performed well, with wins over Norway in the knock-out stages and Owen going undefeated in his singles matches. That was enough to secure a bronze in the team event, narrowly missing out on a place in the Final with a 2:3 loss against Spain where Owen again registered the two wins.
In the Singles, Owen continued his fine run of form. Having gained confidence from a bronze medal in Hungary earlier this year, this time Cathcart went one better and secured a place in the Final, sailing through his group in style before producing big performances to beat two home based players including the Slovakian Number 1 and a Spanish player – all without dropping a set. In the Final, Cathcart came up against the German Hartstang and had some good chances, but ultimately fell to a 3:1 defeat. However a huge tournament for Owen – medals at European events are never easy to earn and to take home a silver and a bronze from this event is a huge testament to the work he is putting in at club, provincial and National level.
Coach John Murphy was delighted with the results but perhaps more significantly notes that Owen has taken some major learning points from his experiences in Slovakia – this is a player who has set the bar very high for himself and will look to push on from this achievement. For now, congratulations to Owen and to coach Murphy from all in Table Tennis Ireland.