Tom Matthews Leads Seven-Strong GB Para Squad to Costa Brava World Future

Tom Matthews, former world and Paralympic medallist, is heading a seven-athlete British Para table tennis squad to the ITTF World Para Future Costa Brava 2026 in Platja d'Aro, Spain, running March 26-29. For the Aberdare-born class 1 player, it is a tournament he knows well: Matthews has competed at the Costa Brava Spanish Open before, taking bronze in the men's class 1 singles. This time he arrives as the squad's most experienced voice in a group built heavily around development.

The full GB squad is Nathan Drayner, 33, from Bolsover (class 1); Max Flint, 21, from Guildford/Loughborough (class 10); Ryan Henry, 25, from Ardrossan/Sheffield (class 8); Thomas Hepburn, 21, from Weymouth (class TBC); Lowri Hurd, 18, from Grantham (class TBC); Tom Matthews, 33, from Aberdare (class 1); and Bailey Page, 19, from Plymouth (class 7).

The trip is framed as far more than a results mission. As those involved with the squad put it: "They'll get the experience of what they need to produce in international competitions, and they can strive to work on that in the training hall." Classification is a key objective for several of the newer names, with Lowri Hurd singled out as a player who "will be really useful for the squad in the future in both singles and doubles" as GB works to build depth in its women's programme.

Nathan Drayner's development draws particular attention. "The learning opportunities that Nathan is going to get from Tom Matthews are really invaluable," the squad's management noted. "Nathan has a really good mental attitude and from his days as a footballer he's already got a similar mentality to Tom and Rob (Davies) so to be able to feed off that as well will be really good for him." The emphasis on absorbing Matthews's experience rather than chasing podiums is explicit: "It is as much a learning opportunity for these players as trying to go out there and get results; it is a lot more about learning for the future."

Matthews himself is the kind of athlete you want in your corner when you're learning what international Para table tennis demands. Born on 19 August 1992 in Merthyr Tydfil, the class 1 Welshman made his international debut at the 2013 Hungarian Open after a road back to the sport that most people would never have navigated. A promising mountain biker before his accident in March 2009, he recalls: "I was racing down a mountain and I went over the handlebars and broke my neck," leaving him a wheelchair user at 16.

He channelled that competitive fire into para table tennis with remarkable results. Matthews won his first major medals at the European Championships in 2015, taking bronze in the men's class 1 singles and gold in the team event. After missing Rio due to a broken leg, he returned to win the US Open, then partnered fellow Welshman Paul Davies to bronze at the 2017 World Team Championships in Slovakia. A World Championships bronze followed in 2018. A shoulder injury disrupted 2019, but the postponement of the Tokyo Paralympics gave him time to recover fully, and he made his Paralympic debut count: he took bronze in the European Championships last November and, in Tokyo, he beat world number three Ki-won Nam of Korea, Dmitry Lavrov, and former world and European medallist Andrea Borgato of Italy to claim Paralympic bronze in the men's class 1 singles. "It's my first Games so I've got to be proud of coming home with a medal," he said at the time. "I didn't think I'd do that."

The three-tier structure of the ITTF World Para Circuit, comprising Future, Challenger, and Elite levels, has established a clear development pathway for athletes, and the Costa Brava event sits at the entry point of that ladder. Circuit events throughout 2026 offer crucial ranking points as athletes seek to secure their places at the sport's pinnacle gathering: the World Para Table Tennis Championships in Pattaya, Thailand in November. For Drayner, Hurd, Hepburn, Flint, Henry, and Page, Costa Brava is the first rung. Having Matthews at the table beside them is about as good a start as British Para table tennis can offer.