Spain shines at the Paralympic Table Tennis World Cup in Granada

The Granada Sports Palace hosts this week the Paralympic Table Tennis World Cup, which is being held for the first time in our country. With medals for history, as the first in doubles, achieved by the Sevillian lvaro Valera and Jordi Morales. That Bronze has been surpassed today by Iker Sastre and Miguel Angel Toledo, runners-up.

The novelty of these World Cups is the direct delete format, without group stage, which increases the excitement and difficulty. One of the favourites, Jos Manuel Ruiz from Granada, was eliminated in mixed doubles and on Thursday he enters into action in singles.

Iker Sastre and Miguel Angel Toledo were proclaimed this Tuesday runner-up in the world of the MD4 class of the doubles modality of the Paralympic Table Tennis World Championships in the final against the South Koreans Jin Cheol Park and Soo Yong Cha by 3-2 ( 11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 11-5 and 11-7).

The Basque and the Madrilenian they were close to crowning their great tournament with a Sensational goldbut the powerful Asian couple crossed their path, current Paralympic team Champions of class 2 and with Park and Cha as the current numbers 3 and 4 in the world ranking.

Even so, Sastre and Toledo dreamed of surprising their rivals, who they had been dismounted in the quarterfinals of the team competition at the event in the Japanese capitalalthough in the double they had demanded the maximum.

And in the Palacio de los Deportes they did it again during the 52 minutes that the final lasted, although the South Koreans were very firm in the last two games as they had in the first, in which they dominated with some authority (11-6).

However, Sastre and Toledo knew how to react and had nerves of steel when they found themselves down 10-9 in the second. Three points in a row allowed them to come back and balance a final that leaned to his side after a comeback even better in the third game to lift an opponent 9-6.

But from there, Park, individual Bronze in Tokyo, raised his level a lot and complicated things for the Spanish couple who couldn’t help but clearly lose the fourth game (11-5). In the fifth and final, the Asians did not let up and although Sastre and Toledo arrived with options (7-6), the end of their rivals left them without options, but with a valuable silver medal.