02 Sep 2018

Disappointment two days earlier at the 2018 China Para Open in Beijing, when losing to Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger in the Men’s Singles Class 3 final; two days later for China’s Feng Panfeng it was success.

Joining forces with Zhai Xiang and Zhao Ping, the outfit recorded a two matches to nil win in opposition to Thomas Schmidberger and colleague Thomas Brüchle to secure the Men’s Team Class 3 top prize.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

It was role reversal, in the Men’s Singles event, Feng Panfeng had commenced matters as the top seed, Thomas Schmidberger the no.2 seed; in the Men’s Team event it was the exact opposite scenario, the Germans topped the order, the Chinese trio in second place.

Defeat for the German duo meant Thomas Schmidberger fell just one step short of repeating his earlier success but, in the Men’s Team events, there were players who added a second gold.

China’s Yan Shuo and Lian Hao alongside Poland’s Rafal Czuper, Ukraine’s Viktor Didukh and Sweden’s Daniel Gustafsson all departed Beijing with double gold; an achievement that was also realised by Australia’s Samuel Von Einem.

One day earlier Rafal Czuper, who had secured the Men’s Singles Class 1-2 title, allied with Tomasz Jakimczuk to emerge as the Men’s Team Class 2 champion.

Somewhat similarly in the same categories as in which they had in enjoyed individual success, Yan Shuo partnered Liao Keli and Wang Yu to Class 7 success, as did Viktor Didukh alongside Ivan Mai and Maksym Nikolenko in Class 8. Likewise, in liaison with colleagues, Daniel Gustafsson won Class 9 in harness with Emil Andersson; in conjunction with Mao Shubo and Kong Weijie, it was success for Lian Hao in Class 10.

Meanwhile, not to be upstaged, Samuel Von Einem partnered Korea Republic’s Kim Gitae to Class 11 gold.

Notably, all were successes for the top seeded pairings; the only outfit to upset the order in the Men’s Team events being Feng Panfeng, Zhai Xiang and Zhao Ping.

China’s Guo Xingyuan, Shi Yanping and Zhang Yan combined to win Class 4; colleagues Chen Chao and Huang Jiaxin succeeded in Class 6, as did Turkey’s Nesim Tura and Ali Ozturk in Class 5.

Play in Beijing concluded, the focus now turns to Ostrava; the Czech Para Open will be staged from Thursday 20th September to Saturday 22nd September.

2018 China Para Open: Full Results

Paralympics Para Table Tennis Thomas SCHMIDBERGER FENG Panfeng