Paris 2024: Battling Colin Judge loses round of 16 clash

Colin Judge's battling performance wasn’t enough as he lost his Para table tennis round of 16 clash 3-0 to world number one Panfeng Feng.

The Chinese athlete already has one gold medal at the Paris Games in the mixed doubles XD7, and if he goes on to win here his gold count will move into double figures.

He didn’t have it all his own way against the Dubliner, who proved particularly competitive in the first two sets in what was his first appearance having received a bye in the round of 32.

Judge, with a big Irish support behind him, took an early lead in the first set of this men's singles MS3 clash, but it was one of only two times he led in the entire match, and both by a single point.

After going to 3-3, Feng moved 6-3 ahead but back Judge came to level it up again at 7-7.

Feng though was able to claim the last four points to move one set up.

The second set followed a similar path with Judge competing well in the early stages and he led 5-4 at one point, but his opponent again finished strongly to win 11-8.

The third set, however, was more one-side as Feng led 10-1 and although Judge won two points in a row, Feng hit the net to win 11-3 and 3-0 overall.

Colin Judge was happy with how he played in losing to world number one Panfeng Feng, "a role model of mine", he added, in the Para table tennis round of 16 #RTEparalympics #paris2024