Day 5 of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games table tennis action continued at Riocentro Pavilion 3 today, 12 September 2016, with Paralympic Champions in 8 medal events being crowned.
In a dramatic Gold medal match for the Menâs 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 Menâs Class 7 title.
âThis 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,â shared BAYLEY after his victory.
Chinaâs GE Yang avenged his bitter loss at the London 2012 Paralympic Games Menâs 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 âAfter 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.â
In the Menâs Class 11 Gold medal showdown, Belgiumâs Florian VAN ACKER stood victorious against Australiaâs Samuel VON EINEM, prevailing 3-2 (11-8, 16-18, 11-13, 11-8) to win Belgiumâs second Paralympic table tennis Gold here at Rio 2016.
VAN ACKERâs teammate, 16-year-old Laurens DEVOS secured the countryâs first Gold last night in the Menâs 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 Chinaâs ZHANG Miao in the Womenâs Class 4 event to secure Serbiaâs first Gold in Rio.
âIt 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,â 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 Franceâs Thu KAMKASOMPHOU. In the all-Chinese Final in the Womenâs 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 Worldâs best Paralympians.
The action can be followed live on the website of the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) and on the TV stations and Radio channels of the Paralympic rights holder in respective country. All the rights holders of the Paralympic Games can be found on this link: http://www.paralympic.org/
