Vejle 2015: Denmark, Great Britain among the teams advancing

“We need to have a good win against Denmark, against the home crowd,” Bayley said. “Hopefully we will meet Spain again in the final.”

Peter Rosenmeier and Michal Jensen were the only home team to win on Thursday (15 October), the first day of the team events at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Para-Table Tennis European Championships in Vejle, Denmark.

In front of a very supportive crowd, the class 6 Danish team took two 2-0 wins on day one from Sweden and Germany’s teams.

Great Britain’s Will Bayley and Billy Shilton beat Spain in two very close matches. Bayley beat world champion Alvaro Valera in an intense 3-2 singles match. Great Britain will play Denmark’s Patrick Otte, Henrik Brammer and Rasmus Damkjaer Hansen in their final game of the group stage.

“We need to have a good win against Denmark, against the home crowd,” Bayley said. “Hopefully we will meet Spain again in the final.”

Ukraine’s Viktor Didukh gave up his first match of the Championships, losing 3:1in the class 8 to Slovakia’s No. 10 Richard Csejtey. Ukraine’s Ivan Mai came through to beat Slovakia’s Miroslav Jambor to secure the win.

The 2011 European Championships class 4-5 silver medallists, Sweden’s Anna-carin Ahlquist and Ingela Lundback won both of their games on day one of the team competition to advance to the semi-finals. The Swedes were not completely satisfied with their performance but think they have what it takes to get to the finals.

“We got the silver in 2011 and we would like to upgrade it to gold,” Alhquist said.

The strong women’s Polish team in class 9-10 with Natalia Partyka, as the tea, dominated on the first day of the team competition with a 2:0 win over both Hungary and the Netherlands.

The class 6 Ukrainian women’s team lost to Russia in their first game of the team competition. Giving up the doubles match with a harsh 3:0 loss, world No. 3 Yuliya Klymenko could not bounce back against Elena Litvinenko to force a second singles match.

Great Britain’s Robert Davies and Thomas Matthews took home a win over Italy. In 2013, Davies was a member of the Great Britain team that took gold in the class 1 team competition. Italy’s Federico Falco and Andrea Borgato competed in 2013, taking home bronze.

Complete results from the 2015 Para Table Tennis European Championships can be found on the event website, along with live streaming of all competition tables.

Competition runs until Saturday (17 October).

Day three recap

Day two recap

Day one recap