As we mark 100 days until the first ball is served at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the immediate focus shifts to Pattaya, Thailand, where the World Qualification Tournament will determine the final athletes to compete in Paris.
From Thursday, May 23rd to Saturday, May 25th, the tournament will see intense competition as one spot in each of the 11 men’s singles events and 10 in the women’s singles (with classes 1-2 combined) are up for grabs.
The stakes are incredibly high. Being a Paralympian is an achievement that grants special status, and winning a medal elevates athletes to the celebrated elite. The quality of the entries in Pattaya underscores the progress made in Para table tennis over recent years.
Among the standout competitors is Ivan Karabec of the Czech Republic. Karabec, one of the most experienced Para athletes, won gold in men’s singles class 10 at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. To secure his place in Paris, he must win in Pattaya.
Joining him is Chris Ryan, a gold medallist in wheelchair rugby from Tokyo 2020. Ryan, now focusing on table tennis, secured a silver medal in men’s singles class 2 earlier this year in Brazil. Competing in consecutive Paralympic Games in different sports would be a remarkable achievement.
The British team presents a strong entry in the wheelchair classes, with Tom Matthews (class 1), who won silver in Slovenia, and Jack Hunter Spivey (class 5), a bronze medallist in Tokyo. Their strong performances this year add to the excitement.
Also competing are France’s Sylvain Noel (class 3) and Slovakia’s Peter Mihalik (class 4). Noel triumphed in Kazakhstan in March, while Mihalik was a runner-up in Egypt in January.
The men’s singles standing classes feature equally formidable competitors. Chile’s Matias Pino (class 6) won in Montenegro, Iurii Nozdrunov (class 9), an independent athlete, prevailed in Kazakhstan, and Poland’s Maciej Makajew (class 11) also took top honours in Kazakhstan.
Poland’s Michal Diesler (class 7) and Chile’s Manuel Echaveguren (class 10) both achieved runner-up finishes in various international competitions earlier this year. Hungary’s Andras Csonka (class 8), a silver medallist from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, will also compete in Pattaya.
The women’s singles events are equally compelling, with notable names including gold medallists Nadejda Pushpasheva (class 2) and Elena Litvinenko (class 8), both independent athletes, as well as Iraq’s Hadeel Al-Waeli (class 3), Great Britain’s Megan Shackleton (class 4), and Israel’s Caroline Tabib (class 5).
Pushpasheva and Litvinenko won in Kazakhstan, while Al-Waeli triumphed in Jordan, Tabib in Poland, and Shackleton in the United States and Brazil.
Other notable competitors include Romania’s Camelia Ciripan (class 6), Argentina’s Gizelle Muñoz (class 7), Olga Komleva-Gorshkaleva (class 9), an independent athlete, Japan’s Nozomi Nakamura (class 10), and the Czech Republic’s Denisa Makurova (class 11). All have earned podium finishes this year.
Ciripan and Makurova took silver in Poland, Muñoz in Brazil, and Komleva-Gorshkaleva in Kazakhstan, while Nakamura secured bronze in Spain.
As we edge closer to the Paralympic Games in Paris, the World Qualification Tournament in Pattaya promises to be an electrifying event, with top athletes vying for their place on the grandest stage of all. Click on the links below to stay updated with the event as it happens!
