By Tom Degun

Paul Davies 2May 25 - Britain's Paralympic table tennis player Paul Davies has won the gold medal in the men's class 1 doubles event at the 2013 Slovakian Open to end the tournament on a high.


After claiming silver in the singles by losing in the final to Andrea Borgato of Italy, the 46-year-old from North Cornelly teamed up with Silvio Keller of Switzerland in the doubles to defeat the Italian team featuring Borgato in the final.

"In the singles final against Borgato I struggled with one of his serves," said Davies, bronze medallist in men's individual class 1 at London 2012.

"But I went away and analysed the match and I knew that if I could have another crack at him it would be a different result.

"Things didn't go according to plan in Slovenia but it's great to finish on a high here and I'm very happy."

Elsewhere Will Bayley and Paul Karabardak took silver in the men's class 7 event after losing out in the final to Ukrainian duo Maxym Nikulenko and Mykhaylo Popov.

"I played really well at times," said Bayley.

"I can take a lot of positives from this week and it's given me something to work on over the next few weeks of training."

There was also a strong performance from Jack Hunter-Spivey added a team bronze in the men's class 5 event to the singles bronze he won earlier in the week

The 18-year-old from Widnes paired with Paralympic champion Tommy Urhaug of Norway and the duo progressed to the semi-finals before losing to Turkey to take their bronze.

"I played really well here and to get two medals in a factor 40 tournament is a great result for me," said Hunter-Spivey.

GB performance director Gorazd Vecko added that he was pleased with the overall performance.

"All the athletes played well and we had some good results," he said.

"We have some good young athletes who need more experience but the most important thing is they are improving all the time and they will continue to get better and better."

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