by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Furthermore, the hopes of the host nation remain very much alive.

In the Men’s Singles events, in Class 2 Ljubisa Gajic progressed to the main draw as in Class 3 did Bojan Lukezic and Primoz Kancler.

It was a day of impresses performances, notably the host nation’s Gorazd Vecko, one of the people responsible for initiating the tournament in 2004 and now the Performance Director for the Great Britain Para Team was most impressed.

“No surprises on the first day, all favourites justified their title hopes and made it in to the knock-out round. Athletes proved that they are even more prepared than last year. The level of play has risen again.“ Gorazd Vecko

Furthermore, there were two very welcome visitors, Darko Jorgic, very much the bright hope of Slovenia and from the other end of the scale Edvard Vecko, who when Slovenia was part of the country named Yugoslavia was a valued member of the national team throughout the 1960s.

Later when international playing days were over Edvard Vecko became involved in Para Table Tennis; Gorazd, his son, has followed suit.

“Part of the event was also attended by Darko Jorgic, an excellent Slovenian table tennis player and he was impressed. Lasko was also visited by Edvard Vecko, who won six medals at World and European Championships in his career and is considered the most prestigious of all Slovenian table tennis players.” Edvard Vecko

Watch the action unfold in Lasko, more medals for those who already have extensive collections? Or will new names appear………………..

2017 Thermana Lasko 14th Slovenia Para Open: Latest Results (Saturday 6th May)