by Ian Marshall, Editor
In the men’s team events, Thomas Brüchle partnered Ireland’s Colin Judge to victory in class 3; Abdullah Ozturk joined forces with compatriots Ali Ozturk and Hamza Caliskan to emerge the class 4-5 champions.
Likewise, Niklas Westerberg combined with colleague Jonas Hansson to emerge the class 7 winners; a situation that applied also to Viktor Didukh in class 8; he joined forces with Maksym Nikolenko and Ivan Mai to secure the class 8 title.
Adding to success it was the same for Maliak Alieva who partnered compatriot Raisa Chebanika to gold in class 6-7, as it was for Victoriya Safonova in class 8, alongside Elena Litvinenko and Fatma Fattakhova. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, in class 9-10 Tian Shiau-Wen allied Ln Tzu-Yu to gain success
Surprise winners
All were wins as anticipated; in both the men’s team and women’s team events, the outfits commenced play as the top seeds.
However, there were surprise winners. In the women’s team competition, the combination of Israel’s Caroline Tabib and Great Britain’s Lucie Bouron won class 4-5; notably they commenced play the lowest rated pair in the event.
Similarly, in the men’s team event, class 9-10, Frenchmen Mateo Boheas and Gilles de la Bourdonnaye emerged unexpected victors; otherwise, as with those who claimed both individual and team titles it was success for the favourites.
Top seeds prevail
Impressively, in the women’s team events, Turkey’s Hatice Duman and Nergis Altintas secured the class 1-3 title; in the counterpart men’s team competitions it was the top prize in class 1-2 for the French pairing of Benoît Besset and Julien Michaud, a situation that applied also when Great Britain was involved.
Martin Perry joined forces with Marios Chatzikyriakos of Greece and Haris Eminovic from Bosnia-Herzegovina to secure the class 6 ttle; in class 9, Ashley Facey-Thompson and Josh Stacey combined to claim gold.
Play concluded in Lahti, next on the agenda is the INAS Global Games, play starts in Brisbane, Australia on Monday 14th October.
2019 ITTF Para Finland Open: latest results and draws
