Oliver Jordan comes away with a silver medal while teams have a mixed weekend in Isle of Man

Our U18, U16 and U14 teams travelled to Douglas, Isle of Man to take part in the Senior Schools International Championships over the weekend of 28-30 June. 

All four teams recorded victories on Friday evening despite the weekend getting off to a turbulent start as the team’s flight was delayed for a little over two and a half hours. Suitcases in hand, our players arrived at the venue at 19:45 while the first round of matches had started at 18:00. 

With younger players playing in older age categories across three of our four teams, the emphasis was certainly on gaining valuable experience with the future in mind. Throughout Saturday our teams battled hard, displaying the behaviours and values we expect from them but on this occasion falling outside of the medals; the U14 girls and U18 boys both finished in sixth place, the U16 boys finished fifth, while the  U14 boys finished in tenth. 

The final day saw the singles event take place and, after long morning of group matches, Ruby Elliott, Toby Harwood, Harry Street, Amelie David and Ffion Evans progressed to the main draws while Oscar Marriott, Oliver Jordan, Oliver Harvey and Dylan Williams went into the plate events. 

The main draw started with the U14 girls which saw both Amelie and Ffion’s event came to an end in the last 16 with quarter-final exits for Toby Harwood (U16 boys), Harry Street (U16 boys) and Ruby Elliott (U18 girls).

In the plate event, both Dylan and Oliver Harvey lost out in the first round while Oliver Jordan went on to secure a silver medal after beating team mate Oscar 3-2 in the quarter final, Scotland’s Oliver Smeeth 3-1 in the semi final, before having to settle for silver after Charlie McGowen, also of Scotland, took the final 3-0.

Table Tennis Wales would like to congratulate everyone who took part and put on fantastic, encourage displays, as well as thank the staff that took the team out.