GREAT Britain’s Special Olympics tennis squad of six players ended the European Summer Games with a total of seven medals after Zara Jurenko and Michael Clarke added gold and silver medals in their respective singles events to the mixed doubles gold medal they won together in Warsaw, Poland.
Jurenko approached the last day undefeated in her first two Group 1 women’s singles round-robin matches against players from Kazakhstan and Poland, and the Leicestershire player enhanced her position as the most successful female payer by beating Germany’s Carmen Lelittko with her third straight sets victory of the week.
After winning mixed doubles gold with Jurenko, Clarke also went into his last Group 3 men’s singles match unbeaten after his opening two matches against Hungarian and Germany opponents.
However, despite putting up a big effort against Monaco’s Christophe Mateu, he missed out on the gold medal after Mateu won their match in a deciding third set.
Worcestershire’s Adam Hodgson was also a mixed doubles gold medallist, but just missed out on a bronze medal in his Group 5 men’s singles event after he was beaten in his final match against Poland’s eventual bronze medallist Jaroslaw Ossadnik.
The tennis team’s six players and their Nottinghamshire-based coaches Lesley and Matthew Whitehead have been part of a 66-strong Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB) delegation in Warsaw that includes 46 athletes who have won a total of 88 medals in Warsaw, consisting of 36 gold, 29 silver and 23 bronze medals.
“We are delighted with the results,” said GB’s Laura Smith, “but medals are not the most important thing. It is the participation itself that makes the Special Olympics really special. All of them are winners.”
