BRECON’S Paralympic champion Rob Davies had a disappointing defeat in the world para table tennis championships in Slovenia last week, going out in the last 16.
The wheelchair-bound former Brecon RFC player went out against Argentina’s Guillermo Bustamante Sierra despite taking the first set.
Davies, who ended up losing by three sets to one and therefore missed out on a place in the quarter-finals, said: “It’s very disappointing. Obviously going out at this stage is not what I wanted to be doing but I can only use it to fire me up ready for next year and that is what I intend doing. These guys are training hard all the time and I couldn’t go out to a nicer guy than Guillermo. He is an ex-rugby player like myself and he has really improved and that is what I need to do for next year.”
The 34-year-old added: “It hasn’t been the season I wanted so I’ve got to change that for next year and I will be back stronger.”
Overall British Para Table Tennis Team performance director Gorazd Vecko pronounced himself satisfied with the team’s performance at the world championships – with Ross Wilson taking gold in men’s class 8 and Tom Matthews and Fliss Pickard taking bronze in men’s class 1 and women’s class 6 respectively. Reflecting on defeats for Rio gold medallists Will Bayley and Rob Davies and the emergence of new talent he said: “We are very happy because we have three players who have never medalled at a World Championship taking medals and a new world champion in Ross Wilson who is still only 23 years old. I’m very happy for Ross because it means everything to him and his family after all his injuries. We also have medals in two new classes for us with Ross in men’s class 8 and Fliss Pickard in women’s class 6.
“Obviously we want to have more medals but it was too much to expect that everyone could take a medal. The target from UK Sport was two to five and we have three medals including a gold. If you had asked me a year ago if Fliss Pickard could take a medal at the World Championships I would not have said she has no chance because I believe in all my players but what she has done here is fantastic.
“I think the results at this competition show the strength of our programme because when our Paralympic champions Rob Davies and Will Bayley were not able to take a medal here we had other players who stepped up to take medals. We know that Rob and Will will come back stronger than ever and I have no doubt that they will have a chance to medal at the European Championships next year and in Tokyo 2020
“So I think overall we had some disappointing results and some amazing results. We will review everything to see what we need to do better to be ready for next year which is our qualification year for Tokyo.”