Mizrachi magic gets Oceania gold
BARAK Mizrachi is one step closer towards Australian team selection for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games after taking home a gold medal and the best & fairest player from the 2015 Oceania Para Table Tennis Cup in Bendigo recently.
Competing in the men’s singles class 6 to 10 — players’ disability is ranked from 1 to 10, with 1 the most severe and 10 being the least — Mizrachi, who is categorised as class 8, easily disposed of group stage opponents before facing a much tougher ask in the decider against a class 10 Australian champion.
“Going into the tournament, expecting to only face players from my class, I was confident, as I had won the Australian National Championships in January for class 8,” Mizrachi, 27, told the AJN.
“But because the Oceania conference isn’t a whole lot of players, they combined the 6 to 10 classes into one.”
After finishing first-place in the group stages, Mizrachi continued his good form by deftly accounting for Australian Jackson Meyn in the quarterfinals.
He then reserved his place in the final by overcoming Victor Kamozina, also Australian, in the semis, setting up a date with destiny in the final against Aussie Joel Coughlan.
“Now the player I had to play in the final was actually the guy I lost to in the open category at Nationals, when [Coughlan] beat me pretty comfortably,” said Melbourne-based Mizrachi said.
A titanic duel ensued as Mizrachi lost the first match 11-5, but bounced back to win the next two games, 11-8 and 11-5. Coughlan pegged one back with an 11-8 win in the fourth, before an incredible fifth match saw Mizrachi take the honours 15-13.
“At the end of the match I was actually crying,” the three-time Maccabian said. “I hadn’t really given myself much of a chance, but a few guys came up to me after [the match], congratulated me and said ‘Joel hasn’t really been challenged like that’.”
Mizrachi missed out on London 2012 due to Australia’s status as an Asian nation, but now that Oceania will send its own table tennis team to Rio 2016, Mizrachi says he is a good chance for Paralympic squad selection.
“I’m currently number 46 in the world in class 8,” he said. “Leading into London I was in top 25 so there’s a lot of work ahead as I’d like to push for a medal in Rio — that’s the goal.”
ADAM BLAU
Pictured: Barak Mizrachi serves at the 2015 Oceania Para Table Tennis Championship in Bendigo. Andrew Perryman/Bendigo Weekly
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