Bullen and Allen take silver in Spanish Junior Tournament

British Pathway squad players Dan Bullen and Craig Allen took silver in their respective classes at the PTT Spanish Junior Tournament today in El Prat de Llobregat. Alex Bland and Conor McAdam progressed from their group in men’s class 6-7 and will play each other in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Bullen began the round-robin men’s class 5 singles with a 1-3 loss to the eventual gold medallist David Olsson from Sweden but the 19 year old from St Neots clinched the silver medal with 3-0 wins against Kamon Sayjan and his compatriot from Thailand Teeradech Klangmanee.

“It has been a good event for me getting the silver,” said Bullen. “It was a slow start against David but when I got going I was playing well and got the job done. Overall it was a good day and I’m looking forward to the start of the senior tournament on Friday.”

Allen had two hard-fought 3-2 wins against Takumi Tsujimura from Japan and Ali Alsanea from Kuwait in the round-robin men’s class 9 but his match against Shaquille Rivera Vicente proved decisive with the Puerta Rican taking it 3-1 and going on to win the gold medal.

“After losing a tough first match I managed to pull through mentally and win both of my last two matches that went to five sets,” said the 22 year old from Bromsgrove. “I played well so I’m feeling good for the senior tournament.”

Bland topped his group in men’s class 6-7 with wins against the American Ari Arratia 3-0 and Noah Olsson from Sweden 3-1. McAdam lost his first group match to Conor O’Callaghan from Ireland 0-3 but earned his semi-final place with a 3-0 win against Sam Gustafsson from Sweden.

In men’s class 8 neither Declan Tobin or Euan McLaughlin came through their group although McLaughlin came very close to winning his second match against Iver Christiansen, eventually losing to the Norwegian 9-11 in the fifth. Elliot Medland was also knocked out of men’s class 10 at the group stage after losses to Bunpot Sillapakong from Thailand and the Spaniard Edgar Mataro.