Gladstone Road School girls net second place in National Schools finals

This event had been long awaited by the team after cruising through qualification in Bradford in February.

The finals saw the top eight English girls primary school teams converging in Wolverhampton.

The venue had a 32 table set-up and there was a great atmosphere throughout the team competition.

Gladstone Road’s team was made up of four girls, Aleksandra Michalik, Chloe Manalastas and Lucy Love from Year 6, and Vanessa Raducanu from Year 5.

All four practise both at school and at Scarborough Table Tennis Club.

Their coach at school, Martin Lowe said: "All the girls are very enthusiastic when training and are a pleasure to coach. I am extremely proud of the girls’ achievements as it makes the time put into training worthwhile.

“I would also like to thank the parents of the four girls for their support in getting the girls to the event and to numerous training sessions.”

In the finals each team would attain a final position from 1-8 depending on their results. In their first match Gladstone Road faced St Clement’s Catholic Primary School from Runcorn.

With 7 games to play in the match (6 singles and 1 doubles) the first to 4 wins would proceed to the semi-finals. Chloe, Aleksandra and Vanessa all took their first matches by 3-0 in sets.

Chloe and Aleksandra soon added an easy doubles win to secure the victory. Chloe and Aleksandra continued their dominance with two more 3-0 wins and Vanessa completed the 7-0 team scoreline after coming from behind to win 3-2.

Gladstone Road had now reached the last four and faced Ashford Preparatory School from Kent, who had defeated Haberdashers’ School, Elstree in the previous round.

Aleksandra began with a 3-0 win and Chloe followed with a 3-1 victory.

Lucy, playing for the first time on the day played some fantastic shots on the way to a 3-0 win.

Another win for the National under 12 bronze medallists (Chloe and Aleksandra) in the doubles, meant another win for the team was assured.

The pair went on to win their next singles 3-1 for Chloe and 3-0 for Aleksandra. Lucy couldn’t add to her first win, but it was still a 6-1 win for the team.

The final saw Gladstone Road come up against the table tennis powerhouse of London Academy.

They have become serial winners of National Schools team titles in all age groups and National individual championships.

On rankings this was going to require a huge effort from Gladstone Road if they were to overcome such a strong team.

Chloe and Aleksandra both took the first set in their first match before losing 3-1 and 3-2 respectively.

Both girls raised their game and had some phenomenally fast paced rallies, but couldn’t quite secure victory.

If Gladstone Road had taken those first two matches it may well have been their name on the trophy.

Lucy followed with a 3-0 loss, but she too played really well with the score being 11-9, 11-3, 11-9.

The doubles saw Chloe and Aleksandra take a 2-0 lead in sets. They almost made it a 3-0 win but went down 12-10 in the third set.

London Academy completed the comeback by taking a 3-2 win and with it the title with them holding an unassailable 4-0 lead.

Chloe again took a 1-0 set lead in her final match before losing 3-1 and Lucy didn’t manage a win in her last game.

Aleksandra took the final match 3-0 with some brilliant play, but this still left the score: London Academy 6 Gladstone Road 1.

The girls had given their all but had just come up short of becoming National Champions.

With second place in a National Championships the girls from Gladstone Road can rightly be extremely proud of their achievement as are all the staff from the school.

The girls showed great spirit and teamwork on the day, they supported each other brilliantly and were extremely gracious both in victory and defeat.

Although slightly disappointed at not becoming champions the girls were also very proud of their achievements. They are a huge credit to the school.