Table tennis is a game of the finest of margins with literally millimetres between a ball hitting the edge of the table or just missing. With only the best players in the world qualifying to compete in a Paralympic Games every match is tough and there were some major upsets in the singles competition including defeats for overwhelming favourites Victor Didukh from Ukraine (men’s class 8), Ma Lin from China (men’s class 9) and Patryk Chojnowski from Poland (men’s class 10).
Having taken silver in London 2012 Bayley had spent the last four years dreaming of gold in Rio. He arrived in Brazil as the reigning men’s class 7 world champion and world number one but after a 3-1 defeat in his first group match to the Brazilian Israel Stroh he had to beat the Chinese player Keli Liao 3-0 in his second group match to progress to the knockout stages.
“I still believe I can win this competition,” said the 28 year old after his defeat to Stroh and he showed his character and belief by playing superbly to beat Liao 3-0 and wins against the Egyptian Sayed Youssef and Jordi Morales from Spain took him through to his second Paralympic final and his sixth consecutive major final. As Bayley prepared to play his third match point in his semi-final against Morales an ecstatic Brazilian crowd nearly took the roof off Riocentro3 when Stroh clinched a five set victory in the other men’s class 7 semi-final against Yan Shuo from China to take him through to the final.
“I‘m not surprised he’s got to the final,” said Bayley, “but I’m excited about playing him again.”
The enthusiasm of the Brazilian supporters created the atmosphere of a mini Maracana Stadium and the GB team came out in force to try and make as much noise as the home crowd in the final. When Bayley clinched a tense third set to take a 2-1 lead in the match it proved to be the turning point as Bayley grew in belief while Stroh’s confidence slowly ebbed away. He established a clear lead in the fourth and with the score at 10-4 he only needed one of his six match points to take the gold before leaping on to the table in celebration - an action that earned him a yellow card from the umpire to which he responded by giving her a hug.
“The third set was a massive win,” he admitted afterwards. “I don’t think he believed he could win after that and I did. Table tennis at this level is just about belief. If you believe you can do it you’ve got a chance and if you don’t, it’s game over. When I won I thought I should do something but it was probably a rubbish celebration. If I did it now I probably wouldn’t be able to get on the table but it was the adrenalin that helped me jump on the table – I’ve never moved so fast in my life.”
Davies had also been motivated for the past four years by disappointment in London when he was eliminated in the group stages of men’s class 1 after a narrow defeat to the then World number one Jean-Francois Ducay of France. Like Bayley he also came to Rio as World number one and he too had to fight hard to win his group with 3-2 wins against Sylvio Keller from Switzerland and the Italian Andrea Borgato. The Welshman appeared to grow in confidence with each match and a 3-0 quarter-final win over his old rival Ducay and a 3-1 win against the Hungarian Endre Major in the semi-final took him through to his fourth consecutive major final and his first Paralympic final.
His opponent was the Korean Ki-Won Nam, who had beaten Davies on both their previous meetings at the Slovenia Open last year. As in Bayley’s final the third set was to prove pivotal with Davies fighting back from 8-5 down to win it 11-9 and take a 2-1 lead. At 5-9 in the fourth a service error by Joo handed Davies five match points but he only needed one as Joo netted and GB had a second gold.
“At end of the second set I just kept mentally strong,” said Davies. “Our team psychologist Tim Pitt has really helped me and I was mentally strong at the end there and bold. It was a really great match and I knew I was going to have to play my best today and thankfully that was what I did. Luckily I could get forward and I was moving well and again; our team physio Jason Beaumont has done a brilliant job here keeping me fit for this competition. I was feeling great today.”
While there was ecstasy for Bayley and Davies there was also agony for some of the GB players including Sue Gilroy who came so close to winning her first Paralympic medal at her fifth Games - losing her bronze medal match to the Serbian Nada Matic 3-2 having led 2-0 - and David Wetherill, who had match point in his quarter-final against the World champion Alvaro Valera from Spain but eventually lost the match 3-2.
Bayley, McKibbin and Wilson had won a bronze in men’s class 6-8 team four years ago and they reached the semi-finals in Rio with wins against Belgium and class 7 World champions and London 2012 silver medalists Spain. A 2-0 loss to Ukraine left them facing China in the bronze medal match after the class 8 World champions were surprisingly beaten by Sweden in their semi-final.
Having made a slow start to the doubles in their semi-final against Ukraine, McKibbin and Wilson immediately took the initiative against the Chinese pair Zhao Shuai and Ye Chao Qun by taking the first set 11-7 and the second 11-9 to lead 2-0.
Zhao and Ye hit back to take the next two sets and at 0-3 in the fifth it appeared as if China now had the momentum. But McKibbin and Wilson came back to level at 9-9 and then a short serve from McKibbin was netted by Zhao to set up match point. They only needed one as another short serve was netted by Ye and McKibbin and Wilson had taken the doubles 3-2 for a 1-0 lead in the match.
In the first singles Wilson faced Zhao, who earlier in the competition had retained his men’s class 8 Paralympic singles title. The 21 year old played well despite a 3-1 loss which left McKibbin needing to beat Sun Churen in the deciding singles to take the bronze. The 25 year old made the perfect start, taking the first set 11-6, but the Chinese former World number three came back to edge the second 11-9 and levelled again at 2-2 after McKibbin had won the third set 11-3.
After so many great matches over the past 10 days it was perhaps fitting that this one went down to the wire as well. There can be no greater pressure than playing a deciding set in the deciding singles against China to win a Paralympic medal but McKibbin showed his maturity and character by clinching the set 12-10 on his second match point to win the bronze and set off wild celebrations by his team mates.
“To be honest I think the fifth game was down to nerves,” said McKibbin. “I was so nervous but I could see in his face that he was praying for me to miss and at the end I thought I just need to go for this and play to win and if I lose playing to win then fair enough. Thankfully it paid off. We won a bronze medal in London but I personally think this is a greater achievement. We have had such hard opponents all the way through and the competition is getting stronger and stronger.”
Wilson has endured a series of injuries in the last four years and was playing in only his seventh competition since London 2012.
“We really wanted to start well and from the go we went out there and just gave it absolutely everything,” he said. “I was feeling the nerves the whole way through the last match but we believed in him (Aaron). We do that as a team - we believe in each other and I think that is what makes us get these results and I can’t believe we’ve done it.”
Bayley, who had secured the decisive singles win in the quarter-final against Spain, admitted that he would rather play than watch.
“It was agony watching,” he said. “They were superb - we’ve come through a lot in this tournament and had to beat some good teams. Overall the tournament has been fantastic for us and I’m proud of the boys - they held their nerve superbly.”