England Promoted To Top Table
England Promoted To Top Table
by James Skitt - 18.09.09
England enjoyed a successful European Table Tennis Championships in Stuttgart this week, with the men’s team achieving promotion to the top tier for 2010.
Supported in Germany by English Institute of Sport (EIS) Performance Analyst Chris Loxston, Pscyhologist Chris Marshall and Physiotherapist Jill Guizzetti, the men’s team went into their final match against Italy knowing a victory would be enough to ensure promotion to the Championship Division.
After Darius Knight, who’d impressed earlier in the tournament, lost to Mihai Boboccia to leave England trailing, Paul Drinkhall pulled the tie level before Danny Reed caused a huge upset, beating Stefano Tomasi, ranked 50 places above him in Europe, to put England 2-1 up before Drinkhall returned to seal victory, and promotion, with a four sets win over Boboccia.
And the achievement of the team is a hugely significant one in their development according to Performance Analyst Loxston, who has been working with the squad for the past two years in Sheffield.
“The division the team has been in was very tight and therefore difficult to earn promotion from so this is a great result” he told eis2win.co.uk.
“Playing at a higher level next year will give the players the chance to play more regularly against higher quality opposition which can only benefit them in the long term” he added.
By playing against the best the promotion will also help Loxton, who travels with the squad to most of the major competitions; continue to build up an archive of footage on the world’s best players to help in the players preparation for matches.
“I am constantly collecting more and more information and footage on opponents but playing more matches next year will give me an even greater opportunity to gain footage on some of the worlds best players which will be valuable to the players and their coaches” he says.
The England Women’s team of Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Hannah Hicks meanwhile finished 21st in their Division, with Parker impressing in particular with 8 wins from her 10 matches.
Both squads, who also receive EIS Strength and Conditioning support from Ian Piper at their base in Sheffield, will now look ahead to next month’s English Open, which takes places from 28th October – 1st November in Sheffield.
For more information on the European Championships or the upcoming English Open click here
Photography © Getty Images