Double delight for Daybell and Stacey

Kim Daybell and Josh Stacey sealed double gold medal success at the PTT Czech Open, adding TM10 team glory to the individual triumphs they recorded on Friday.

With Ashley Facey-Thompson, who himself also won men’s class 9 silver on Friday, struggling with a knee injury, Daybell and Stacey were paired together and went all the way as Saturday’s team events concluded at the Ostrava Sports Facility.

Sheffield’s Daybell, 26, and 18-year-old Welshman Stacey won silver and bronze respectively at this year’s Commonwealth Games and dovetailed perfectly as they came through their group comfortably with 2-0 wins against Czech Republic and Luxembourg.

As top seeds, they went straight into the semi-finals, where they defeated Russia 2-0, and in the final, against the Chilean/Japanese pair of Manuel Echaveguren Farias and Hayuma Abe, they won the doubles 3-1 and Daybell secured the gold with a 3-0 win against Farias.

“It was nice to cap off the tournament with a victory in the team event,” said Saybell.

“For a number of years, it has only been Ash and me and it’s really exciting to have a new member to strengthen our team even further.

“Ash was carrying a minor injury so couldn’t play and we showed that we can be just as strong, no matter what combination we play.

“Josh is a good young player with an exciting future and I hope we can go on to be successful as a team.”

Teenager Stacey added: “Ash and Kim will be the team for the next few years, so just to be part of the team was good for my confidence.

“The doubles with Kim was positive. He’s very experienced, so it helped me to settle into the matches knowing he was accustomed to being in these situations.

“Winning gold is a great feeling as it means I’ve had the perfect tournament on paper.”

Meanwhile, Fliss Pickard, partnering with Caisa Stadler of Sweden, won silver in the round robin TF 6-7 category while there was bronze for Craig Allen and Hungarian Barnabas Retter in the in men’s class 9.

On Friday, Megan Shackleton joined Daybell and Stacey in taking home individual gold, the Todmorden youngster triumphing in the women’s class 4.