Evans is European Champion

Table tennis superkid Gavin Evans became cadet boys champion of Europe on Sunday. In an amazing series of triumphs in the Italian town of Terni, Evans proved what others have thought for many years – he is simply the best of his age in Europe.

In 2005 Evans was crowned European Under-12 champion, now he has proved that he is still the best in his class by winning the Cadet Boys’ Singles championship at the European Youth Championships. As if that was not enough, Evans brought home three more medals, two silver and a bronze, as part of an England team that had their best results ever at the pinnacle event in European junior table tennis.

Evans comes from a local table tennis dynasty. Mother Linda was Buckinghamshire number one in her teens and played for Slough while father Rhys was one of the top coaches at Cippenham Table Tennis Club before the family moved north a few years ago to be close to the National Table Tennis Academy. Brothers Bradley and Myles have also represented England.

Evans’ victory, though, was hard won. He came to the brink of defeat twice before even reaching the semi-final. In the last sixteen Evans let a two game lead slip to 2-3 before recovering to win the sixth game 13-11 and then the decider 11-7 against Frenchman Quentin Robinot. His quarter final performance, however, surpassed that in every way. Playing Luca Fucec it was similar but worse. Once again Evans raced into a two game lead only to be pegged back to 2-2 and then 3-3. The big hitting Croatian was giving Evans all sorts of trouble and when Fucec stood 10-6 up in the seventh game Evans was right on the brink of elimination. He needed to win every one of the next four points or he was out. Champions have that little bit extra and Evans chose that time to step up yet another gear and, hitting the ball harder than before, climbed back to 10-10 and eventually won the game 14-12.

European cadet table tennis is on a high at the moment with many very good players around. Evans found another in his semi-final encounter with Simon Gauzy. Gauzy led 2-1 in games and Evans only grabbed the fourth at 12-10. After that, though, he got up a head of steam and ran out a comfortable winner in the next two games. This set up a final against Hampus Soderlund who Evans had already beaten in the team match against Sweden. Evans just secured the first 15-13 but the next two games went to the Swede. Evans rallied to win 11-7, 11-8 and then a huge effort saw him grasp the coveted title 12-10 in the sixth.

Evans’ silver medals came in the team event and the cadet boys’ doubles. The fast improving Liam Pitchford was Evans’ England partner in the team event. The group stage held no fear as Germany, Italy and Spain were all eclipsed 3-0. Romania suffered the same fate in the first knock-out round and then came the first test against a very good Belgian side. Evans won both his singles as England came through 3-2. In the semi-final Evans suffered his first defeat at the hands of Anthony Tran but England still prevailed over Sweden 3-2. However, they could claim only the silver medal after a final round loss to France 3-1.

In the boys’ doubles Evans partnered Cedric Nuytinck of Belgium. After overcoming three successive rounds 3-2 they found themselves in the final against another Belgian pairing of Indeherberg and Vanrossome but lost easily 3-0.

The bronze medal came in the cadet mixed doubles when Evans partnered the new European cadet girls’ champion Petrissa Solja of Germany to a place in the semi-final where they lost to a French pair.