Disability Sport Wales
Chwaraeon Anabledd Cymru

Slovakian Road trip

A team of Table tennis players and staff overcame the flight ‘shut down’ resulting from the Icelandic Volcano and set off on a marathon car journey to compete in Slovakia. Two players, Robert Davies – pictured (Brecon) and Paul Karabardak (Swansea), and Coach Neil Robinson (Bridgend) and helper Guy Williams (Brecon) set off at 4pm on Monday 19th April from Bridgend.

From their base in South Wales they travelled via the Dover/Calais ferry crossing, through eight countries to their destination in Piestany, Slovakia, arriving at 9.30pm local time on the 20th April. The 1,200 mile journey had taken 28 hours! The event started at 9am the next morning with everyone seeming remarkably fresh.

In the singles event both Rob and Paul performed well. Paul topped his group winning all three group games, but lost in the quarter final to eventual Gold medal winner Ukrainian Popov. Rob qualified to the quarter final stages winning two matches and losing one to World ranked No.3 Frechman Ducay. In the quarter final Rob overcame German veteran Walter Kilgar 3-1. Rob then faced World No 1 Austrian Vevera in the semi final and was defeated 1-3 in a very competitive match. In the Bronze medal play off match Rob faced World No.4 Mauro Rossi and at 3-7 down in the final set Rob seemed to be heading for defeat and a ‘time out’ was called by Coach Neil Robinson…..words of wisdom or was it the chocolate! who knows? but Rob showed great character and skill to take the set 11-9 and a deserved bronze medal.

In the team event Paul and team partner Will Bailey beat favourites Ukraine with Paul winning the deciding match 3-1 against the class 6 champion. They went onto lose 1-3 to the Czech Republic and after a ‘count back’ took the Bronze medal.
Rob teamed up with Hungarian Janos (Harry) Kaisor and after an uncertain start losing their first two matches against France and Italy they put in some great performances on Day 4. Firstly they beat a combined German/Austria/Swiss team 3-1. Rob again beat Germany’s Kilgar, but the highlight of the event for Rob was his victory over World No1 Andreas Vevera. He won 12-10 in the final set having trailed 8-10 showing great coolness under pressure. They won their final group match 3-0 but just missed out on the Bronze medal on ‘count back’ in a very tight competition.

After all the excitement we then set off on the return journey, and 22hrs and 1,200 miles later we arrived home, tired, but with some great results and a memorable experience!!

On Tuesday, 4th May the same team are joined by Sara Head, Paul Davies and Scott Robertson to compete in the Slovenian open. Oh, and this time we are flying!!

Neil Robinson
GB Table tennis coach

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