BRECON'S Rob Davies has this afternoon won the European Para Table Tennis Championship.
2016 Paralympic Champion Davies, won his group at the championship in Helsingborg, Sweden, and faced Hungary Endre Major in this afternoon’s semi-final at 3pm.Davies won gold, in the men's clas one final, with a 3-1 victory.
Earlier today Davies beat Austria’s Sylvio Keller 3-0 in the men’s class one quarter final.As European champion the former rugby player gains automatic qualification for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo next year where he will bid to defend his title.“I knew in the back of my mind that winning would guarantee qualification for Tokyo but I just blanked that out today,” he said. “For me it is about getting out there and enjoying it at the moment because I’ve had a few up and down years since Rio and to pull it out at another major means the most really. I’ve got to thank so many people – Shaun Marples who has stepped in as my coach for the last two competitions, my usual coach Greg Baker back at home who keeps me grounded, my family and friends, the physios out here Jill and Morag, Neil Robinson who knocks with me every week and is unbelievable, Tom Matthews who is pushing me all the time and the old dog Paul Davies who has been about for years and has showed me some tricks so it was good to see him here and I’m glad I could win the gold in front of him."Davies won his semi-final against Sylvio Keller from Switzerland 3-0 this morning to set up a final against the World number five Endre Major from Hungary, who won gold at the Polish Open earlier this year and came through a tough semi-final against the Russian Dmitry Lavrov in five sets. Major’s last win against Davies came in the European Championships in 2011 but the pair have had some great battles since, notably at the World Championships in 2014 when the Welshman came through 14-12 in the fifth, and at the Paralympic Games in Rio when he won in four sets on his way to claiming the gold.The 35-year-old from Brecon made a great start in today’s final and at 2-0 and 5-2 in the third he seemed to be on course for a comfortable win. But Major is a great competitor and after a time out he came back to take the third 11-8. Davies quickly moved to 7-3 in the fourth but again Major fought back with a run of seven points that gave him three points for the set. But Davies used all his experience and levelled at 10-10, saving two more set points and then taking the gold on his second match point, 15-13.