Table tennis preview

Natalia Partyka competes in the singles Class 10 finals at Beijing 2008. © • Getty Images

There will be 174 men and 102 women taking the stage to battle it out in the 29 medal events at the ExCeL over the course of the 10 days of competition.

Dates: 30 August – 8 September

Venue: ExCeL

Number of Athletes: 276

Medal Events: 29

Ones to Watch: Will Bayley (GBR), Natalia Partyka (POL)

Table tennis will be rubbing shoulders with a number of sports at the ExCeL arena, but with its fast-paced action and incredible skill it’s likely to keep the capacity crowds entranced.

There will be 174 men and 102 women taking the stage to battle it out in the 29 medal events at the ExCeL over the course of the 10 days of competition.

With athletes who have an intellectual impairment allowed to compete in the London 2012 Paralympic Games, too, there is scope for even more mesmerising action.

Natalia Partyka, who claimed gold at the last two Paralympic Games in the women’s class 10 competition, is certainly one to watch as she is favourite to do so again.

Impressively, although less reported then Oscar Pistorius’ incredible feat of competing in the Olympic Games a fortnight ago, Partyka also did this for a second time.

“I have no idea what I am going to do between because I didn’t expect that I would be called twice for London,” she said.

She gracefully bowed out in the third round at the Olympics, but spoke highly of her chances of success at the Paralympic Games.

“I am the best player, so everybody expects from me the gold medal and the pressure is so big,” she said.

Others to keep tabs on are Mateja Pintar of Slovenia, who is a former Paralympic champion, and young British athlete Ross Wilson, who is competing at just 17.

Another star to keep a close eye on is Great Britain’s Will Bayley. The world No. 1 in his class 7 category is looking to shine at the ExCeL in front of his home nation.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games will be Bailey’s second, after his valiant exit from the group stage in Beijing four years ago.

After winning gold at the 2011 European Championships, Bayley shot to the top of the rankings and is now favourite to add a Paralympic gold to his collection.

Speaking about his ranking in the build-up to the games, he said: “It feels great, but now I have to live up to it.”

Bayley expects the class 7 category to be a highly contested one and reckons anybody in the top 15 could snatch the gold medal, but has earmarked Ukrainians Mykhaylo Popov and Maxym Nikolenko as his biggest rivals.

But he does reckon the backing of the home crowd can inspire him to victory.

He said: “It’s going to be all the clichés everyone says it is playing in front of a home crowd.”