Shackleton scoops bronze medals in Slovenia

Competing in the women’s singles class 4-5 category, Shackleton came through in three close sets against Lisa Di Toro, the former Oceania Para champion from Australia.

She then produced a great performance against Caroline Tabib to fight back from 2-1 down and beat the class 5 world number six and former world bronze medallist from Israel 3-2, 11-9 in the fifth. Shackleton progressed to the knockout stages as group winner after a 3-0 win against 17-year-old class 4 Martina Sande, from Spain.

She twice came back to level in beating Flora Vautier, the class 4 world number 10 from France 3-2 in the quarter-final and produced another fighting performance in the semi-final against Bhavina Patel, levelling at 2-2 against the class 4 world number one from India before losing the deciding set 11-8.

“I’m really happy with how I’ve been doing here,” said Shackleton, “especially on the first day when I didn’t feel my best, but I managed to grind my way through it and I think that helped build my confidence for the rest of the matches.

"Disappointing not to win [in the semi-final] but it is definitely an improvement since last time we played, and I felt like I played some top-class stuff."

Shackleton bagged her second medal of the tournament when she teamed up with Caroline Tabib from Israel in the women’s class 10 doubles.

They came through a great battle against Nergiz Altintas and Irem Oluk from Turkey 11-7 in the fifth. They twice came back to level against Sandra Mikolaschek and Jana Spegel and had match point in the deciding set, but the German pair took it 12-10 for a 3-2 win.

Shackleton and Tabib progressed as runners-up and a 3-0 win against Edith Sigala Lopez and Martha Verdin from Mexico took them through to the semi-finals where they lost 3-1 to Andela Muzinic Vincetic and Helena Dretar Karic, the European champions from Croatia.

Shackleton said: “Helena and Andela are a really strong team and have won lots of medals at Paralympic Games so I think we can be proud of that performance.

"It is difficult because we don’t train together, and you do need that consistency, but we have practised together and played tournaments together a few times now so we’re getting more familiar. I think the main thing is good communication; I know how Caroline needs to play in order to feel confident, so it is about giving her the tools to be able to do that and obviously play well myself.”

The Todmorden star is competing in Slovenia again this week, when the first Elite tournament under the new ITTF World Para tournament structure takes place.