Fresh from the back of two Future events, the ITTF Para Challenger event took in a first four days of thrilling in Wladyslawowo. 24 titles were decided across four days, with the likes of home hero Maciej Makajew coming out on top.
Paris Medallists Deliver Once Again
Tommy Urhaug and gold medals. They go together quite nicely at this point, don’t they? The Norwegian grabbed a second Paralympic gold medal of his career in Paris, and added another to his collection in Poland on Friday. He secured M4-5 victory against Japan’s Kazuki Shichino.
For Slovakia’s formidable duo of Peter Lovas and Jan Riapos, there were mixed singles fortunes, both against the same opponent. Fabien Lamirault – who achieved the gold medal in the M2 at Costa Brava’s future event – got the better of the legendary Riapos, but came up short against his Paris 2024 gold-medal partner, Lovas. The duo wouldn’t be denied in the MD4 doubles though, seeing off Lamirault and partner Julien Michaud in the semi-finals before defeating Spain’s Daniel Rodriguez and Iker Sastre in the final.
In the women’s competition, there was once again plenty to celebrate for Andela Muzinic Vincetic. The Croatian class 3 player emerged on top in the Class 1-5, building on what was surely a pinnacle Paris gold medal back in 2024. Ukraine’s Maryna Lyvotchenko was another of those who brought her best to Wladyslawowo. Lycvotchenko defeated the likes of Cajsa Stadler and Katarzyna Marszal en route to Class 6 victory.
Strong Showings Across The Board
It wasn’t only those who excelled on the grandest stage who brought their A-game here, though. Bobi Simion of Romania was in sparkling form to claim Class 6 victory in the men’s competition, overcoming Peter Rosenmeier in a thriller of a final.
For Brazil, doubles days brought all the joy and even more of the excitement. Take Joyce de Oliveira as the prime example. Paired with Catia Oliveira in the women’s doubles, Joyce didn’t lose any doubles games all weekend, culminating in success at the end in the W5-10 group. And in the mixed, it was the same outcome, partnering with Carlos Eduardo Freire de Moraes for more of the same.
There were two epic Croatia v Brazil gold medal clashes on the final day too – and both were taken by the Europeans. First, Borna Zohil and Mirjana Lucic were able to record a 3-2 victory in the Mixed 17-20 final against Paulo Henrique Fonseca and Bruna Alexandre. And in the final round of matches of the weekend, Croatia claimed Mixed XD4-7 victories as well. Tomislav Spalj and the already golden Muzinic Vincetic won 3-0 against Fabio Silva and Thais Fraga Severo.
Poland’s Maciej Makajew impressed once again to bring home glory in the class 11, victorious 3-1 in the final against Florian van Acker of Belgium.
Recap the action
Missed the action from Wladyslawowo and want a comprehensive rundown of the results? We’ve got you covered. Head to the results section of our website to take a look at every result. And to relive the action from across various tables, visit our YouTube page where we streamed twice daily.
What’s next in the ITTF Para Circuit?
The action continues to come thick and fast over the next few weeks! In two weekends time we return to the Future competition, coming from Lahti (Finland), before immediately heading to Amman (Jordan). Challenger takes centre stage at the backend of April, with consecutive weekends of action coming from Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Podgorica (Montenegro).
