Theo Bishop teamed up with New Zealander Matthew Britz to take bronze in the men’s class 14 doubles on the last day of the ITTF World Para Challenger Podgorica in Montenegro today.
Bishop and Britz, the 21-year-old class 7 Oceania Para champion, were drawn in the same group as Dan Thomson and Jacob Wicks (pictured above, photo credit ITTF) and they beat the young class 6 British pair 3-1 before losing 3-0 to Ricard Sabio Ruiz and Alberto Seoane Alcaraz from Spain. They secured their place in the knockout stages with a 3-0 win against Nand Remy Vynckier from Belgium and Bobi Simion from Romania.
Thomson and Wicks did not progress after losing 3-1 to Vynckier and Simion and 3-1 to Sabio Ruiz and Alberto Seoane Alcaraz but the teenagers competed well and are improving all the time.
Ryan Henry and Paul Karabardak edged a tight first set against Marios Chatzikyriakos and Georgios Mouchthis from Greece 13-11 before going on to win 3-0. They took the first set against Alejandro Diaz and Gabriel Diez Alvarez from Spain 12-10 on their way to a 3-0 win and secured their place in the knockout stages as winners of group 3 with a 3-0 win against Duro Krivokapic and Pjetro Paljusevic from Montenegro.
They faced Bishop and Britz in the quarterfinal and the British/New Zealand pair took a close first set 12-10 and led 2-0 after taking the second 11-6. Henry and Karabardak fought back well in the third but Bishop and Britz edged it 16-14 for a 3-0 win.
That took them through to the semi-final against Daniil Domanevskii and the men’s class 7 singles gold medallist Maksim Nazarkin, competing as neutral athletes. The Russian pair took a tight first set 12-10 and just had the edge over their opponents, taking the second set 11-8 and the third 11-7 for a 3-0 win.
A bronze medal was some reward for 21-year-old Bishop who lost his quarterfinal in the men’s class 7 singles to World number three Katsuyoshi Yagi from Japan in five sets having also taken World number five Jean Paul Montanus to five sets in his group.
“I think that overall, I can be pleased with my performance,” he said. “To lose 3-2 against two top five players in the world, matches that I feel I definitely have the level to win if one or two points go my way – I can take a lot of confidence from that going forward to Slovenia next week. Playing doubles with Matthew was a great experience. If I’m honest I didn’t really know what to expect from our doubles going into the competition, but I was pleasantly surprised and think that we really grew as a pair the more we played. To gain a victory against Ryan and Paul was a great result for us and I hope to build on this success playing with Will (Bayley) in Slovenia.”
The British squad for the ITTF World Para Challenger Podgorica (April 30-May 3) is:
Theo Bishop, 21, Rossendale/Sheffield – class 7
Ryan Henry, 24, Ardrossan/Sheffield – class 8
Paul Karabardak, 39, Swansea – class 6
Fliss Pickard, 30, Burnley/Sheffield – class 6
Daniel Thomson, 19, Brighton/Sheffield – class 6
Jacob Wicks, 19, Cwmbran/Sheffield – class 6
