Perry left to rue missed chance
Paisley athlete forced to settle for silver in Slovenia
Craig Ritchie
Paisley para table-tennis ace Martin Perry admitted he was gutted not to take gold at the PTT Slovenian Open.
The Great Britain trio of Perry, Paul Karabardak and David Wetherill bagged silver in the men’s class six competition, while teammate Tom Matthews took silver in the doubles with his Argentinian partner Guillermo Bastamante Sierra. There was also bronze for Ross Wilson and Aaron McKibbin.
But the Buddie conceded that he was left to rue what might have been having come up just short in their quest for a spot at the top of the podium, following defeat to Romanian Bobi Simion and Georgios Mouchthis from Greece,
In their semi-final, European team champions Karabardak, Perry and Wetherill faced the German team of former world bronze medallist Thomas Rau and Tim Laue, who had taken team gold in the Italian Open earlier this season.
Karabardak and Perry played superbly to win the doubles 3-0 and Perry then showed great determination to come back from 2-1 down against Laue to level at 2-2. A good time out call from GB head coach Greg Baker when Perry’s 7-4 lead in the fifth was reduced to 7-6, put the Paisley man back on track and he took the set 11-7 to take his team into the final.
Against the combination of Simion and Mouchthis, Karabardak and Perry quickly went a set down and although they pushed their opponents harder in the next two sets they lost them nine and 11 which meant they had to win both singles
Perry lost the first set to Mouchthis but then held his nerve to win the second 14-12, having led 10-4, and went on to take the match 3-1.
European bronze medallist Simion, who won gold at the Italian Open earlier this year, has become something of a nemesis for Karabardak but after losing the first 11- 4, the 32- year- old Welshman fought back to win the second 11- 6 to push the Romanian all the way despite an eventual 3-1 loss.
“We are disappointed not to get gold,” said Perry.
“It has been a good solid team effort by everyone involved – not just Paul, myself and Dave and the coaches we’ve had in the corner – but everyone has been down for every match supporting us and that has really lifted us.
“Georgios and Bobi are a very difficult doubles team because of their style of play so I thought coming in to the first singles match I just wanted to continue my form and the way that I was playing.
“I feel that I did that so I was happy to get the win and it meant that Paul had a crack to go on and win gold.
“But we can’t fault anyone’s performance. Bobi is a top player and very tricky and Paul gave it everything.
“Happy with the silver and disappointed it couldn’t be gold but it’s good to finish the tournament on a high in terms of my singles performance.”