by Ian Marshall, Editor
Winner of men’s singles class 1-2 the previous day, Luis Bustamente Flores joined forces with Spain’s Iker Sastre and Alan Papirer to secure the men’s team class 2 title.
Competing in a group organised event, they finished ahead of the Czech Republic’s Jiri Suchanek and Martin Zvolanek; Slovakia’s Lukas Klizan and Marian Kamien concluded matters in third place.
Success for the top seeds, it was the same for Laurens Devos in men’s team class 8-10.
Partnering colleague Ben Despineux, the duo recorded a 2-0 win against the combination of Marc Ledoux, also from Belgium and Germany’s Björn Schalke. A final between two outfits as expected, Marc Ledoux and Björn Schalke commenced play as the no.2 seeds.
Outsiders
Conversely, the trio of Mladen Ciric, Nemamja Curic and Nebojsa Ilic was not listed amongst the leading teams. They finished in first position in their group ahead of Chile’s Cristian Gonzalez and Maximiliano Rodriguez Avila, the no.2 seeds.
Through to the main draw, they recorded a 2-0 penultimate round success in opposition to the pairing of Norway’s Sebastian Vegsund and Iceland’s Hakon Bjarksson. The good form continued, earning a 2-1 margin of victory in opposition to the top-seeded Czech Republic partnership of Petr Svatos and Vratislav Holik to seal the title.
Spanish gold
The title secured against the odds, in the one remaining men’s team event, it was gold as status predicted.
Safely through the group phase, Spain’s Alvaro Valera and Jordi Morales, the top seeds, recorded a 2-0 semi-final success against the partnership comprising Romania’s Bob Simion and Georgios Mouchtis of Greece, the no.2 seeds, prior to claiming the title at the expense of the Czech Republic’s Daniel Horut and Zbynek Lambert.
Earlier, Daniel Horut and Zbynek Lambert had recorded a surprise 2-0 win against Bob Simion and Georgios Mouchtis to secure first position in their initial phase group.
Attention now turns to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games; play commences in the Metropolitan Gymnasium on Wednesday 25th August.