Lina Lei/Qian Yang - World Para Champions

Overnight at the World Para Championships in Spain, our Aussie duo of Lina Lei and Qian Yang won gold in the Women’s Doubles 20 event, in doing so becoming World Para Champions! On their way to claiming gold, Lina and Qian dispatched pairs from Indonesia and Chinese-Taipei, before ousting Paralympic Games gold medallists Natalia Partyka/Karolina Pek (Poland) 3-1 in the final. This is a tremendous achievement for Lina and Qian and for Australian table tennis. This is the first world title won by Australian athletes since Jeffrey Needham won gold at the World Wheelchair Games in 1998 and the first world title by Australian females since Carmel Williams won gold at the World Wheelchair Championships in 1987. Special congratulations Lina and Qian.

That wasn’t the only Australian medal for the day, with Nathan Pellissier teaming up with Lina to claim bronze in the Mixed Doubles 17 event. The duo enjoyed strong victories over pairings from Croatia and Thailand, before a Danish duo stopped progress. This is the first World Para Championships medal for Nathan and is a great reward for many years of hard work and sacrifice, where he has based himself in Germany to aid his ongoing improvement. Well done Nathan and Lina!

Another medal is guaranteed with Ma Lin/Qian Yang into the final of the Mixed Doubles 20 event. They’ll play tonight Australian time and we’ll be cheering them on all the way.

Plenty of other Aussie doubles pairs have been in action with many wins being recorded. Full information including draws, results and links to livestreaming can be viewed at: https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5360/andalucia-2022-world-para-table-tennis-championships/#information