MEGAN Shackleton and Fliss Pickard got off to losing starts in their first World Para Table Tennis Championships in Slovenia but both were happy with their debuts on the big stage.
Shackleton started with a match against the Paralympic and European champion, Borislava Peric-Rankovic, and the 19-year-old put up a great fight, taking a tight first set 13-11 and pushing the world number two from Serbia all the way despite a 3-1 loss.
The Todmorden teenager can still progress to the knockout stages if she can win her second match today against the world number 10 Pi-chun Lu from Chinese Taipei.
“I think for my first Worlds, to draw the current Paralympic champion was always going to be a challenge,” admitted Shackleton, “but I think I managed to compose my nerves really well out there and to get 3-1 against someone so highly ranked in my class is promising for the future.
"I’m just showing now that I do have that ability under pressure to make the right decisions and hopefully in the future sets will start coming my way. I can take a lot of positives from this and I’m really enjoying playing out here so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
In her first World Championships, Pickard could not have picked a tougher opponent than world number one Marina Lytovchenko - the Ukrainian who has won gold in Slovakia, Slovenia and China this year.
However, the 26-year-old from Burnley kept battling and was far from disgraced in a 3-1 loss.
She play her final group match against Gabriela Constantin from Romania tomorrow.
“She’s definitely got a lot more experience than me,” said Pickard. “She’s been to Paralympics and she’s the top player in class 6 this season with a lot of good wins against classes above her as well so she’s very good. I felt I played OK - my level wasn’t great in technical terms but I’m happy with my attitude and the way I kept fighting for every single point.”
* The full British squad for the World Championships is:
Will Bayley MBE, 30 years old (men’s class 7) – Tunbridge Wells (home town)/ Sheffield (lives)
Paul Davies, 51 (men’s class 1) – North Cornelly
Rob Davies MBE, 34 (men’s class 1) – Brecon
Kim Daybell, 26 (men’s class 10) – Sheffield/London
Ashley Facey Thompson, 23 (men’s class 9) – London (Stratford)/Sheffield
Sue Gilroy MBE, 45 (women’s class 4) – Barnsley
Jack Hunter-Spivey, 23 (men’s class 5) – Liverpool/Sheffield
Paul Karabardak, 33 (men’s class 6) – Swansea
Tom Matthews, 26 (men’s class 1) – Aberdare
Aaron McKibbin, 27 (men’s class 8) – London (Wandsworth)/Sheffield
Fliss Pickard, 24 (women’s class 6) – Burnley
Megan Shackleton, 19 (women’s class 4) – Todmorden
David Wetherill, 28 (men’s class 6) – Torpoint
Ross Wilson, 23 (men’s class 8) – Minster/Sheffield
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