Shackleton has sights set on Slovenian glory

​Shackleton is in Great Britain’s 14-strong squad that will compete in the tournament, which runs from Monday to Friday, and she is also in action this week, going for glory at the ITTF World Para Challenger Lasko tournament taking place at the same venue in Slovenia.

“The new ITTF competition structure represents a massive change,” said BPTT Performance Director Gorazd Vecko, “and it is taking some time for everyone to understand the new system.

"The biggest change is that it isn’t important who you beat or who you lose to but how far you progress in a tournament.

"The Future tournaments are intended only for young athletes and those who need to be classified but some of the first Future tournaments have included top five players in the world.

“This means they don’t really understand the system because winning a Future tournament as a top athlete doesn’t really achieve anything as they carry the least number of points and only an athlete’s six best tournaments count towards qualification for major championships.”

Vecko added: "With our Performance squad we are looking to get them qualified for the major events and the Elite tournaments are the highest ranked tournaments and carry the most bonus points towards the world rankings.

“The Challenger tournament in Lasko will be preparation for the best players for the Elite but around 60 per-cent of the best players from other countries are also playing both tournaments so the Challenger will be more like an Elite tournament but is worth only half the number of points.

"It will be good preparation for the doubles to try out new combinations but will also give players a chance to play a singles tournament before the Elite.”

Also in the squad are Paris 2024 medallists Will Bayley and Rob Davies, who return to international competition for the first time since taking Paralympic silver last year in the men’s class 7 and men’s class 1 singles respectively.