Aaron McKibbin & Joshua Stacey (pictured above) continued their successful season by taking gold in the men’s class 18 doubles at the ITTF World Para Challenger Spokane in Washington State, USA.

It was the second gold of the tournament for both men, having earlier won the men’s class 8 singles and men’s class 9 singles respectively.

Men’s class 18

Aaron McKibbin & Joshua Stacey came through their group with wins against the American pair of Cole Rothenberger & Randall Medcalf 3-0, and Claudio Massad & Jean Carlos De Souza Mashki from Brazil 3-0.

They received a bye into the semi-finals and lost only eight points in defeating Chen Hsien Jue & Hsieh Tsung Ying, the World Abilitysport Youth Games silver medallists from Chinese Taipei 3-0.

The GB pair started well in the final against Gabriel De Oliveira Antunes & Luiz Filipe Guarnieri Manara, taking the first set 11-8 but the Brazilian pair edged a tight second to level at 1-1. McKibbin & Stacey regained the momentum by taking the third set 11-5 and led 8-4 in the fourth but De Oliveira Antunes & Guarnieri Manara came back to lead 10-8 and saved a match point at 11-10 down before clinching the set 13-11. McKibbin & Stacey led 7-3 in the deciding set and the Brazilian pair came back again to lead 8-7 but McKibbin & Stacey held their nerve and took the set 11-9 to win 3-2.

“I think we both switched off a little bit when we had big leads in the fourth and fifth sets,” said Stacey, “but I thought Brazil played very well and I think our communication towards the back end of the fifth set is what won us the match.” 

“Very happy to win,” said McKibbin. “It was a close match, and I think we didn’t play our best, but our experience together dragged us through. In patches we played really well, and the most important thing was to get the win. I’m looking forward to the World Championships where I think we have a great chance based on this season.”

Women’s class 14-20

With classes 14 and 20 combined, Bly Twomey & Fliss Pickard faced a tough challenge and they were beaten 3-1 by the class 10 pair of Jeanelly Scarlett Gongora Magana from Mexico & Thulir Hector from Canada. They lost 3-0 to class 10 Bruna Alexandre & class 9 Danielle Rauen, the Para Pan American champions from Brazil and did not progress after a 3-1 loss to Liu Xiaowu & Jiang Shan from China. Twomey & Pickard took the first set 11-9 but the Chinese pair levelled at 1-1 and then edged a tight third set 12-10 before securing their win, 11-6 in the fourth.