"I'm really proud of myself" - Gritty performance not enough as Todmorden's Megan Shackleton loses in Paralympics quarter-final

Shackleton came within a point of a first win against world number one Borislava Peric-Rankovic in Slovenia in May and she put up another tremendous performance today against the former world and Paralympic champion.

After Peric-Rankovic had edged a tight first set 12-10 Shackleton took the second 11-9. The Serbian has been there, done that and got every t-shirt and she appeared to have found another gear when she raced through the third set 11-1. To her credit Shackleton came back fighting in the fourth to lead 10-7 and then held her nerve after Peric-Rankovic had levelled at 10-10 to win the set 12-10 and force a deciding fifth set.

From 5-2 down Shackleton battled back to level at 8-8 but the greater experience of Peric-Rankovic – a seven-time European champion – proved decisive as she took the set 11-8 and the match 3-2.

“I’m really proud of myself,” said Shackleton, “coming into this after two years of recovering from injury and struggling to find my form, then having a fantastic season winning lots of tournaments and finally getting myself to Paris, getting to the quarterfinals and taking on one of the best in the world. I played really well and I have no regrets. Obviously, it’s extremely gutting not to get the medal and at the end of the day that’s what we all play for. I believe I’ve got plenty left in me and hopefully things are only going to get better.

“Even in the third set the scoreline wasn’t fantastic, but I was sticking to what was working. I just needed to adjust a few things, but I believe in committing to what the right thing is now, and I’ll stick with that and I think that showed in the fourth set and even in the fifth. I just think she managed some of those closer moments really well and I guess that just shows her experience. But each time I play these quarter-finals in the singles I feel I’m learning more and more about how to hold my nerve and how to get through those moments and hopefully it's coming soon.

“I really believe in myself and even here I kind of believed I was a contender for a medal, and I think I did show that despite the outcome. The girls are all fantastic and I think there’ll be some really tough matches in LA as well but I’m going to keep working hard and keep pushing my game on and hopefully it will be a gold in LA.”