Canada’s oldest competitor at the Paralympic Games just came up short in her bid to win her country’s first-ever medal in table tennis.
Richmond’s Stephanie Chan settled for fourth place after falling 3-1 to Korea’s Seong-Ok Kim on Tuesday morning in Rio. She won the opening game (14-12) but would drop the next three — 11-7, 11-7 and 11-8. It was a rematch from Group B play just three days earlier that saw Kim also prevail 3-2 (9-11, 11-4, 11-1, 12-10, 11-3).
Chan headed to South America ranked 10th in the world after capturing gold at the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games. She opened the competition with a close 3-2 loss to China’s Rui Wang, then rebounded to defeat Anne Barneoud of France 3-0.
Chan moved onto the semi-finals on Sunday where she dropped a 3-0 decision to world No. 1 Kelly Van Zon.
“[The match] was very difficult,” said Chan following the loss. “I haven’t played her this year so I just saw on the video how to play her.
“I am an old woman and I can play with the young girls. They are under 30 and I’m 59. I am proud of that because I just enjoy the game. I’m like their mom, my son is also 30.”
Meanwhile, two other Richmond athletes begin their competition tomorrow as members of Canada’s wheelchair rugby team.
Ian Chan and Travis Murao will be in action when Canada takes on Brazil. The Canadians are among the gold medal favourites.
