Kim Daybell

Kim Daybell

Athlete Information

  • Region

    Sheffield

  • Date of Birth

    10/08/1992

  • Classification

    Class 10 at Rio

Athlete main content

Bio

Kim Daybell started playing table tennis at the age of nine at home in the garage with his dad and was immediately attracted by the speed and excitement of the sport. He made his international debut at the 2008 German Open at the age of 16 and progressed to win gold medals in Germany, Italy, Slovakia and Romania before finishing fourth at the European Championships in 2011 and representing ParalympicsGB at London 2012.

Sheffield born Kim has been inspired by Paralympic sport and since 2010 has combined his table tennis training with studying for a degree in Medicine at Leeds University.

In 2013 Kim took a bronze medal in Slovenia and reached the quarter finals of the singles in the European Championships before finishing the season in style with gold in the class 10 singles at the Belgian Open. He began 2014 with a silver medal in the team event in Slovenia. He then confirmed his progress by taking gold in the men’s class 10 singles at the Cote d’Azur International without dropping a set.

Kim admits that combining training with his medical studies can be hard and in 2015 he made the decision to take a year out of University to prepare for Rio. After bronze medals in Italy and Slovenia he reached the quarter-finals in the singles in the European Championships but was bitterly disappointed to lose in four close sets to Ivan Karabec from the Czech Republic.

In the team event he faced the former World and European champion again in the first singles match of the tie between GB and Czech Republic and he produced some great play to come back from 2-1 down to win the fourth set 11-4 and then held his nerve superbly to win the fifth 11-7 for a memorable victory over the World number six.

Although he and Ashley Facey Thompson were subsequently knocked out by France in the quarter finals Kim finished the competition in positive mood.

At Rio 2016 Kim reached the quarter finals in both the men’s singles and men’s team events and at the European Championships a year later he and Facey Thompson claimed silver. He combined with Ashley Facey Thompson and Joshua Stacey to take bronze in the men’s class 10 team event in Sweden in 2019.

Having qualified in 2018 Kim started working part time as a junior doctor in August at Whittington Hospital in North London.

Kim was selected to represent Team England in the Commonwealth Games in April 2018 and he took silver in the men’s class 6-10 singles, losing in the final to his England team mate Ross Wilson.

Major Results

2019 European Championships, Sweden

  • Men’s Team (class 10): bronze

2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia

  • Men’s singles (class 6-10): Silver

2017 European Championships, Slovenia

  • Men’s Team (class 10): Silver

2016 Lignano Master Open, Italy

  • Men’s singles (class 10): Bronze

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