Rio, Sept., 13, 2016 – Day 5 of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games table tennis action continued at Riocentro Pavilion 3 yesterday, with Paralympic Champions in 8 medal events crowned.
In a dramatic Gold medal match for the Men’s Class 7 event, world number twelve, local hero Israel PEREIRA STROH faced off world number one and reigning World Champion Will BAYLEY, whom he had defeated on his first match at Rio 2016 in the group stage.
BAYLEY, the London 2012 Silver medalist, was not going to allow history to repeat itself, beating PEREIRA STROH 3-1 (11-9, 5-11 11-9, 11-4) to claim the Men’s Class 7 title.
“This is the best feeling in the world. I never thought it was going to happen again when I lost in the final in London as table tennis is such an unpredictable sport and to get to a final in two Games is an unbelievable achievement,” shared BAYLEY after his victory.
China’s GE Yang avenged his bitter loss at the London 2012 Paralympic Games Men’s Class 10 final, as well as the 2014 World Para Table Tennis Championships, with a taste of sweet victory against defending Champion Patryk CHOJNOWSKI (POL).
Having his eyes all set on the Gold, GE overcame CHOJNOWSKI in a full distanced thriller 3-2 (5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 16-14) to take home his first Paralympic Gold.
Pleased with his victory, the 30-year-old Chinese shared “After losing in London I was very sad and depressed, so before coming here I did a lot of preparation during these four years for this match. I am getting older and Patryk is much younger than me – I don’t have another four years to wait. This is the time.”
In the Men’s Class 11 Gold medal showdown, Belgium’s Florian VAN ACKER stood victorious against Australia’s Samuel VON EINEM, prevailing 3-2 (11-8, 16-18, 11-13, 11-8) to win Belgium’s second Paralympic table tennis Gold here at Rio 2016.
VAN ACKER’s teammate, 16-year-old Laurens DEVOS secured the country’s first Gold last night in the Men’s Class 9 event, making him the youngest ever male Paralympic Table Tennis Champion.
2015 ITTF Female Table Tennis Star Borislava PERIC-RANKOVIC fulfils her Paralympic Gold dream, with a 3-2 (11-4, 6-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-6) victory over China’s ZHANG Miao in the Women’s Class 4 event to secure Serbia’s first Gold in Rio.
“It is a very big day for our country, not only for me and Nada MATIC but also for Mitar PALIKUCA, winning bronze earlier; that is three medals in table tennis, a good, good, good, good day,” stated the elated Serbian.
China took home the remaining three Gold given our today. London 2012 Class 8 Champion MAO Jingdian successfully defended her crown with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-3) win over France’s Thu KAMKASOMPHOU. In the all-Chinese Final in the Women’s Class 3 and Class 5 events, XUE Juan and ZHANG Bian prevailed 3-0 over their colleagues LI Qian and GU Gai respectively to claim Gold.
More Paralympic table tennis actions continues tomorrow at Riocentro Pavilion 3 with the remaining Gold medals in the Singles event to be given out to the World’s best Paralympians.
