Golden day for GB in Belgium

The GB Para Table Tennis Team struck gold at the Belgium Open today with European champion Rob Davies (class 1), Kim Daybell (class 10) and David Wetherill (class 6) all winning their singles events in Sint-Niklaas, while Jack Hunter-Spivey (class 5) took silver in his event.

Davies, the world number one, had to come from 2-1 down in his final against old rival Jean-Francois Ducay from France, who had beaten Paralympic and world champion Holger Nikelis in the semi-finals. The 29 year old from Brecon, who had earlier recorded a much easier 3-0 victory against Ducay in the group stages, showed all his fighting spirit to clinch the gold 3-2.

National Paralympics Day 2013Leeds medical student Daybell, 21, also showed great resolve on his way to winning gold, coming back from 2-0 down against Karim Boumedouha from France in the semi-finals before beating the Russian Pavel Lukyanov 3-1 in the final.

Wetherill, from Torpoint, put a disappointing European Championships performance behind him by beating Tim Laue from Germany in the final 3-1, having earlier beaten Michael Azulay of Sweden 3-1 in the semi-finals.

Hunter-Spivey, 18, from Widnes, beat Ching-Chin Tsai of Chinese Taipei 3-1 in his semi-final and took the first set off the world number three Valentin Baus in the final before the German’s greater experience told in a 3-1 win.