(by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor)
Notable names leave Las Vegas with individual and team titles

Sweden’s Anna-Carin Ahlquist alongside Israel’s Caroline Tahib emerged the most successful female players on duty when proceedings came to a conclusion at the 2017 United States Para Open In Lass Vegas on Friday 15th December.

They won gold in both the Women’s Singles and Women’s Team events; furthermore, in the latter they joined forces to gain success.

Together they secured the Women’s Team Class 2-5 title, earlier in the week Anna-Carin Ahlquist had won the Class 2-3 event, Caroline Tahib had emerged successful in Class 4-5.

Meanwhile, for the men, Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger, Thailand’s Ringroj Thainiyom and Indonesia’s David Jacobs completed the double.

Winner of the Men’s Singles Class 3 title, Thomas Schmidberger joined forces with colleague Valentin Baus to secure the Men’s Team Class 3-5 top prize. Likewise Rungroj Thainiyom partnered Japan’s Takuya Shibasaki to success in Men’s Team Class 6-7; in Men’s Team Class 10, David Jacobs lined up alongside compatriot, Komet Akbar to gain success.

“For me it was very short, only three days and I got a gold medal so I’m very very happy! It was not my best tournament but overall this whole year, I am happy. I am happy now. For the next year, my goal is to have good and hard training, so I can become world champion next year. I’ve been away from home for four weeks, so I’m just happy to go home now to my family; my dog is waiting for me.” Thomas Schmidberger

In the individual events Rungroj Thainiyom had won Class 6, David Jacobs had been crowned the Class 10 champion.

Notable performances but overall on the concluding day of play, it was Norwegian players who excelled. Aida Dahlen and Merethe Treiten combined to win Women’s Team Class 6-8; Steffen Salomonsen and Pablo Jacobsen secured the Class 8 title.

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