Spanish Para Open to lead to bigger things for Caleb Crowden

After two and a half years since he last represented Australia, Caleb Crowden can’t wait to touchdown in Platja d'Aro for the Spanish Para Open next week.

Crowden, who last competed internationally at the Bangkok Para Open in August 2019, is hoping to test himself against some of the best players in the world.

“It’s been a tough two and a half years without any international competition so I’ve done a lot of hard work to try and improve,” he said. 

“I think the thing I'm most excited about is to test myself and see where I'm at against some of the best players in the world, but it'll just be nice to be able to get back out there with the team and to represent Australia is an incredible thing,” Crowden added.

The South Australian player admits initially when events and tournaments started being cancelled in early 2020, he struggled to maintain motivation. However, after reaching out to coaches and some of the other players he found new ways to stay motivated that weren't just competition based.

“The advice was to stay motivated by working on yourself and looking at your own personal development goals on the table and off the table,” he explained.

“I think the key areas for me were developing my mental strengths to deal with setbacks and being able to approach the game when I'm down. But flipping the coin on that…I think I’ve improved on my technical skill a lot. 

“I've worked quite a lot over the last 18 months to two years on my backhand and forehand loop and being consistent so I use that a bit more in my style of play and be a bit more aggressive to take the game on that way,” Crowden added.

With the Spanish Para Open set to get underway on 24 March, Crowden, who competes in Class 4 - a classification for athletes who generally have an impairment due to a lower spinal cord lesion or cerebral palsy, is hoping to do his best to win events. 

However, he also admits that it is difficult to set these types of goals at the moment, having not had much international competition experience, so wants to be able to see where he is at compared with others.

“I want to be able to go over there and test myself to see where I'm at after all this time. I want to push and see how deep I can go into both singles and the mixed doubles tournaments,” Crowden said.

For the Brighton District Table Tennis Club player, the tournament in Spain will also help him in his preparations for qualifying for two major tournaments coming up later this year - the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and World Para Championships.

“The Commonwealth Games would be a dream come true for me because I've watched it since I was a little kid,” said the 2017 ITTF-Oceania Para Regional Table Tennis Championship gold medallist.

“It’s the same with the World Para Championships. If I could go back there again this year with the improvements that I have made, thanks to the hard work of the coaches and support staff, to try and push and see how far I could actually go would be a big goal of mine.”

Birmingham 2022 will be the first time Para table tennis has been included in the Commonwealth Games as its own discipline. 

Previously, Para table tennis had been an optional sport that the host country decided to include or not which had seen it included under the able-bodied table tennis banner, giving it limited events at the Commonwealth Games, with the wheelchair class only being included on three occasions as a women’s only event. 

Fortunately at Birmingham 2022, there will be four events across the incorporating combined classes available for Para athletes.

“When I was a little bit younger, I was constantly told no to things or that there wasn’t a Para event, so to be told that there is actually that opportunity, at first, I didn't know if I really believed it… it seemed too fantastical for this tournament that I'd grown up watching to have this chance to compete in it,” Crowden said.

The Para Spanish Open will take place from 24-26 March in Platja d'Aro, Spain.