Welsh Para-table tennis legend Robinson retires
Welsh Paralympic champion Neil Robinson is retiring after a career in which he represented Great Britain in 11 Paralympic Games, seven as an athlete and four as a coach.Bridgend-born Robinson, 66, won gold with the men's C3 team as well as a silver in the singles competion at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.He also won medals in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, before retiring after the Beijing games and starting his coaching career at London 2012."This is a very difficult decision given my long-term involvement with British Para Table Tennis [BPTT]," said Robinson, "but I feel the time has come to retire and have the flexibility to spend more quality time with my family, even more so now that my wife Karen and I are grandparents. "I love the sport of table tennis so I intend to stay involved and to continue working with BPTT when required and I will look at helping to develop established and new players individually."
Robinson was training to work as an electrician in the Merchant Navy when he was a passenger in a car accident at the age of 18 that left him requiring a wheelchair.After taking up table tennis during rehab he went on to become one of Britain's most successful Paralympians, winning seven medals across seven games. Robinson was also a European champion and world number one, and in 2012 he received an MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to the sport.Having switched to coaching, and with several Welsh players in the British squad, Robinson set up a centre at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff where the Welsh players could benefit from top quality coaching on a full-time basis."This was really important," said BPTT performance director Gorazd Vecko."When we started with the new structure the Welsh players came to Sheffield for a training camp, and for the rest of the time there was no coaching in Wales at the highest level. "When I look back, I think that Neil was a huge part of every medal that was achieved by a wheelchair player from Wales over the last 15 years."Robinson coached Paul Davies to a bronze medal in London and also Tom Matthews to bronze in Tokyo 2021.Although he was not in the corner when another of his players, Rob Davies, won gold in Rio, that remains one of his highlights alongside his own playing acheivements."I am very proud to have had a positive influence in the lives of the athletes that I have been involved with and contributed to some of their life changing moments," said Robinson. "There have been many memorable moments at the Paralympics Games - the standout moments for me as an athlete are in Barcelona 1992 where I won gold and silver medals, and Atlanta 1996 in achieving silver and bronze medals."As a coach, again there are several amazing memories - coaching Paul Davies to an unexpected singles bronze medal at the 'home games' in London 2012 and years of preparing Rob Davies to achieve his singles gold in Rio 2016. "The circumstances surrounding Tokyo 2021 and then coaching Paul Karabardak, Tom Matthews and Megan Shackleton to their first Paralympic medals was really special to me. "I am extremely proud to have won seven Paralympic medals as an athlete but working closely with and helping athletes achieve their Paralympic dreams gives me a greater feeling of satisfaction."
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