Paralympics in Paris: Silver for table tennis doubles – Hausberger takes bronze

The table tennis duo Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger missed out on the first German gold at the Paralympics. In the final in Paris, the German duo lost 0:3 to the Chinese Feng Panfeng and Cao Ningning and won silver. For Baus, who is in a wheelchair with brittle bone disease, it is his third Paralympics medal. The paraplegic Schmidberger has secured his fifth medal.

After a balanced first set with a lucky outcome for the Chinese (9:11), Baus and Schmidberger were unable to get back into the game despite the numerous support from German fans in the arena. The opponents won the second set 5:11. In the third set (5:11) Baus/Schmidberger again had no chance. After silver for the women’s doubles Stephanie Grebe and Juliane Wolf, this is the second medal for the German para table tennis team.

Shortly before, Maike Hausberger won bronze in the 500-meter track cycling time trial. In the Vélodrome, the Trier native, who was born with paralysis on the left side of her body, won her first medal in her third Paralympics and the third for the German delegation at the Paris Games.

“I am very, very proud and happy that I have now won a medal,” said Hausberger. “I went through the race again and again, gave it my all – and it was enough.”

Gold went to Australian Amanda Reid. Second place went to Wangwei Qian from China. Hausberger was 1.682 seconds behind the winner.

The 29-year-old, who competed in athletics in 2012 and 2016, confidently made it into the final in third place. At the start, Hausberger narrowly missed out on a medal in the 3000-meter pursuit, finishing fourth.