Korea Republic’s Jung Younga emerged the most successful player, when proceedings closed on Sunday 11th September, at the ITTF Finland Para Open in Lahti; she claimed the maximum possible, three titles.
Bronze medallist at both the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and five years later in Tokyo, the 43-year-old displayed her high quality.
After emerging successful on the second day of action in women’s singles class 5; competing in class 10, she partnered the host nation’s Aino Tapola to women’s doubles gold, prior to securing the mixed doubles top prize when combining with colleague Park Jaehyun.
Three titles for Jung Younga, it was two for Sweden’s Emil Andersson and Cajsa Stadler, a situation that applied also to Chinese Taipei’s Sun Jin-Sian, Lin Tzu-Yu and Tian Shiau-Wen.
Gold in men’s singles class 8, Emil Andersson joined forces with Cajsa Stadler to win mixed doubles class 14. Earlier, Cajsa Stadler, the runner up in women’s singles class 6-7, had partnered Lucie Hautière of France to success in women’s doubles class 14.
Similar to Emil Andersson, Sun Jin-Sian, the men’s singles class 10 winner, claimed mixed doubles class 20 gold in combination with colleague Lin Tzu-Yu.
It was a success that gave Lin Tzu-Yu, her second gold of the tournament, earlier in the day she had partnered Tian Shiau-Wen to class 20 women’s doubles success. The win gave Tian Shiau-Wen, a second gold. On the penultimate day of action, she had prevailed in women’s singles class 9-10.
Success for east Asia; there was more. Also from Chinese Taipei, Hsieh Fei and Chen Po-Yen won men’s doubles class 22; Japan’s Hayuma Abe and Koyo Iwabuchi reserved gold in men’s doubles class 18.
Likewise, there was more gold for Korea Republic; in men’s doubles class 4, it was thanks to the efforts of Park Sungjoo and Kim Kim Hakjin; in mixed doubles class 22, Chen Po-Yan and Li Jing-Shiuan prevailed.
Meanwhile, the French combination of Emeric Martin and Sylvain Noel secured men’s doubles class 18 gold, Belgium’s Ben Despineux and Germany’s Henrik Meyer claimed the men’s doubles class 14 title.
In the one remaining event to be decided on the last day of play in Finland, it was success in mixed doubles class 17 for Jonas Hansson and Anja Handen.
Play concluded in Lahti, attention now turns to Argostoli, the three day ITTF Greek Para Open commences on Friday 30th September.
