Ross Wilson Britain Sheffield Other sport KentOnline reporter Tunbridge Wells Sport Ross Wilson Britain Sheffield

Title wins for Tunbridge Wells’ Will Bayley and Minster’s Ross Wilson at the Michael Hawkesworth British Para Table Tennis National Championships

kentonline.co.uk

Will Bayley and Ross Wilson are among the best of British after title success at the Para Table Tennis National Championships.

Tunbridge Wells' Bayley successfully defended his class 7 title at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, while Wilson, from Sheerness, retained his class 8 crown - but missed out on a second win after he was beaten 3-0 by Joshua Stacey in the open standing final.

With world champion status Bayley can be an intimidating opponent, but he was pushed all the way in the class 7 final by Theo Bishop, who went down fighting 3-1.

The Rio 2016 gold medallist was grateful for the test, too. “It is brilliant to see young players coming through and pushing me and that is what I want, really,” said Bayley. “I’ve been doing a lot of training with Theo this week because I know how good he can be and after most sessions I’ve been doing an extra hour with him so we know each other’s style so well now and understand each other’s game. "He has so much potential so I hope this season he can really push on and try and qualify for [the] Paris [paralympics]. "I was playing a 14-year-old in the group today - Dan Mead - who has a lot of potential as well and I’ve had to work hard for every single match. "I remember when I first started around 15 years ago we didn’t have that strength in depth but now even the development players are solid players so it has changed a lot for the better and it will push everyone’s level up.

Related News
Puck Pieterse (Alpecin–Deceuninck) stormed to victory in the Cross-country Olympic World Cup women’s elite race on Sunday, as part of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Ineos Grenadiers) took second and Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV) took third. Ad The top eight earned their places in the front row following Friday’s UCI Cross-country Short Track World Cup women’s elite race, won by Laura Stigger (Specialized Factory Racing).
Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic both took big wins in the SSE Airtricity league, each putting three goals in the net to no reply.
Former Bohemians man Ryan Graydon snatched the deciding goal, as Derry City knocked Bohemians off the top of the SSE Premier Division table.
Michael Beale revealed Rangers won't be giving Celtic a guard of honour this weekend - while confirming Alfredo Morelos WILL play a part in the final derby of the season.
Tunbridge Wells’ world champion Will Bayley heads a strong British para table tennis squad of 17 athletes for the Slovenia Open in Lasko, which gets under way today (Tuesday).

Latest News

Change privacy settings
This page might use cookies if your analytics vendor requires them.