The Paralympic World Qualification Tournament concluded today in Laško, Slovenia. Over the last three days, 228 of the world's best athletes have fought for the 21 available tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. France was the big winner of the Laško games, claiming three of the qualifying spots. Great Britain, Russia, Thailand and Turkey tied for silver with two apiece. Ten countries share the bronze medal podium, any one of which could go on to claim gold this summer in Tokyo: Brazil, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Slovakia and Ukraine. Great Britain's Dr. Kim Daybell, competing in the men's class 10, has spent the last 15 months working tirelessly on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. With table tennis training necessarily taking a back seat, the good doctor was not in peak form. After advancing from his qualifying group, Dr. Daybell succumbed to Taiwan's Su Jin Sian in the quarterfinals. In the end, French delegate Gilles de la Bourdonnaye secured the lone qualifying spot in men's class 10, tipping the overall tally in France's favor. Finland's Aino Tapola (pictured), seeded last in the women's combined classes 1-2, went undefeated to claim her ticket to Tokyo. "In our classes, only a small portion of the muscles work, so physical strength doesn’t matter that much," explains Tapola. "Tactics... are more crucial. The game is like chess: You have to know how to place." In Tapola's case, along with 20 of her Tokyo-bound colleagues from around the world, she knows how to place first.

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