Gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Hungary’s Peter Palos is defending his men’s singles title at the Virtus Global Games; overall, a seven-day multi-sport gathering which commenced in Vichy, France on Sunday 4th June, the table tennis events take place from Monday 5th to Friday 9th June.
Additional to Tokyo and four years ago at the Virtus Games in Brisbane, Peter Palos was also successful in 2012 in London.
He is just one of a string of players who have claimed titles at major international tournaments; reigning World champions Korea Republic’s Kim Gitae and Lea Ferney of France compete in the now well-established tournament, held quadrennially for class 11 players.
Furthermore, Lea Ferney is one of several names on the Vichy entry list who has enjoyed success in women’s singles class 11 events this year at international championships.
She won on the Costa Rica; later Japan’s Miwa Yamaguchi prevailed in Lignano, Hong Kong’s Wong Ting Ting in São Paulo, Poland’s Ewa Cychowska in Argostoli and Turkey’s Ebru Acer in Lasko.
Likewise for the men, Frenchman Antoine Zhao who won in Egypt appears on the entry list, as does Chinese Taipei’s Chen Po-Yen, successful in Lignano, alongside Ukraine’s Valerii Vlacenko, the winner in Argostoli and Poland’s Maciej Makejew, victorious in Lasko.
Excellence is the order of the day, the very reason why the tournament started; an elite-multi-sport event for World Intellectual Impairment Sport.
A concept initiated in 1986, the first event was held in Harnosand, Sweden, in 1989, named “The 1st World Games for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability”.
Soon after the competition became known as the INAS (International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability Global Games), before in 2019, in the Australian city of Brisbane, being renamed the Virtus, thus igniting a new era.
A total of 36 men and 29 women representing 18 member associations compete.