Belgium’s youngest Paralympian takes gold in table tennis

Laurens Devos of Malle, Antwerp province, became the youngest athlete ever to win gold in men’s table tennis at the Paralympic Games. The win in Rio yesterday followed a flawless performance in earlier rounds, against much older opponents.

Devos (pictured) turned 16 just last month, making him the youngest athlete on Belgium’s Paralympic team. He has cerebral palsy, and the first sport he ever took up was horse-riding. However, the minute he picked up a paddle to play table tennis against his big brother, Robin – a member of Belgium’s table tennis team and rated 119 in the world – he was hooked. So much so that he insisted on attending the sports school for top athletes in Leuven.

After two years, at the age of 14, he was playing internationally, and one year later was European champion in Class 9. Table tennis players are classed according to their level of disability from 1 to 10, with the higher numbers signifying less physical handicap. Devos remained in Class 9 for the Rio Games.

There, he made mincemeat out of his opponents, winning all of his matches, with a 3-0 shut-out in the semi-final. He played against opponents aged 21 to 47 from Japan, Ukraine, the US and Spain. In the final, assured of at least a silver medal, he played the same faultless game, sending Dutch player Gerben Last home with silver after another 3-0 defeat.

“When I’m playing I don’t really feel like I have a handicap,” Laurens said. “I even play in competitions for the able-bodied. But the level is a little bit too high for me in the real Olympic Games. That’s why I chose the Paralympic Games, although I hope all the same to become a top athlete in the future.”

In other Paralympic news, wheelchair athlete Marieke Vervoort of Diest won the silver in the 400m race with a time of 1:07.62, behind Canadian Michelle Stilwell at 1:05.43. This is the third Paralympic medal for Vervoort, known as “The Beast from Diest”, who won gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m at the 2012 London Paralympics.

Vervoort, 37, made international headlines this summer with the suggestion that, suffering from constant debilitating pain, she would use euthanasia to end her life at some point after the Rio games. “I have done everything I can to keep myself healthy,” she told Britain’s Telegraph. “But the only thing the doctors can do for me is keep giving me pain medication.”

Photo courtesy Paralympic.be