09/02/2012        2012 Paralympic Games

A member of the silver medal winning European Boys’ Team at the ITTF Cadet Challenge in the Caribbeann town of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 2005, now 22 years old, Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski won the Men’s Singles Class 10 title at the London 2012 Paralympic Games on the evening of Sunday 2nd September.

In the final he beat China’s Ge Yang, the no.1 seed and the player who, four years ago in Beijing, had won gold in both the Men’s Singles Class 9-10 and Men’s Team Class 9-10 events.

Occupying the no.4 seeded place in the draw the tall Polish star, now a teacher, after a slow start seized control of proceedings and never relinquished his grasp in search of gold.

Patryk Chojnowski, who suffers from an ankle disability, won in three straight games (11-9, 11-4, 11-9).

Bronze for Indonesia
Success for the fourth seed in the gold medal match; in the bronze medal contest it was success for the no.3 seed.

Indonesia’s David Jacobs accounted for Jose Manuel Ruiz Reyes, the no.2 seed in four games (11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6).

Worked Hard
"I am so happy, I am very happy, I have been working very hard for one year preparing for this tournament”, said Patryk Chojnowski. “It was very hard, I did everything myself; for the first six months I played without a coach and I did my training myself."

First Win
Motivated and in typical Polish style with a powerful backhand Patryk Chojnowski gained revenge for an earlier defeat`.

"I lost to him in the China open, so he was the favourite”, he explained. “This is the first time I have beaten him.”

He could not have chosen a better time.

Fighting Display
“I fought for every ball, I was losing 3-9 in the first game but I just played”, continued Patryk Chojnowski, “I did not think of the next game because I really wanted to win the first; I did not think about the match I had lost, I was thinking about what is now and I was going on from ball-to-ball."

Celebration
Victory for Patryk Chojnowski and at the end a Zhang Jike like celebration; at the GAC GROUP 2011 World Championships in Rotterdam, Zhang Jike had ripped off his shirt after beating Wang Hao in the Men’s Singles final.

Patryk Chojnowski was more demure; she took off his shirt and threw it to his supporters.

Not Planned
"Before the match I did not plan this”, he smiled. “It just happened, I was so happy, I did not know what I was doing, I just took off my shirt; Maybe I watch a lot of football and was thinking of that."

Often the footballer had a shirt underneath with some stupid comment; thankfully that was not the situation for Patryk Chojnowski!

Perfect End to Day for Poland’s
The shirt was retrieved and the gold medal presented; day four at the Paralympic Games came to an end, for Poland and Patryk Chojnowski a perfect end, s golden day.