George strikes gold twice – and silver too!
To those who play league and social table tennis in Harrogate, George Chan is a familiar, welcoming figure going back to his time coaching at Granby and continuing at Racquets Club. Many will also have enjoyed their encounters playing with and against him in the League.
Most people are now aware that George was diagnosed with Parkinson’s nearly ten years ago. He credits much of his continuing fitness to his enduring passion for table tennis and also to his martial arts training and to his juggling skills!
George has always been an outstanding athlete: most notably back in the day as a student at Harrogate Grammar School, where he recorded their fastest 100 metre time (ever!) and exercised his skills playing on the wing for the school rugby team 1stXV.
From head boy at HGS, he went on to take a place at Imperial College, London and that is when he took up table tennis and martial arts. Later on, work for ICI took George around the country but when he re-emerged in Harrogate, he was famed for his serving skills and brutal forehand kill shot.
Since his Parkinson’s diagnosis, George has had to re-imagine the sort of game that he needs to play. The ferocious forehand is less evident because George now has to contend with a legs that don’t always respond immediately to the call to move! But he continues to work tirelessly on alternative means to win the point.
And now George has entered a new era of competitive table tennis. This summer, he entered the Inaugural UK National Parkinson’s Championship. In typical George-style, he said, “I thought I’d give it a bash” and proceeded to win the Singles event. The woman he beat in the final (who had been widely tipped to take the gold) was so impressed she immediately signed George up as her mixed doubles partner. And then England came calling, asking him to represent the country and be part of their team at the ITTF Parkinson’s World Championships in Berlin this month.
Having negotiated exhausting Covid protocols, with family support, George managed to get himself to the Berlin championships. Now he was on an emotional rollercoaster. The Berlin venue was breath-taking. The assembled group of players filled him with hope and optimism. Not only did he and his English partner go on to take the silver medal in the mixed doubles, but George was assigned a partner for the men’s doubles, a New Yorker called Nenad Bach. Together they won gold in the class 2 event. As Nenad said to George after the victory, “This is an officially recognised ITTF event. Now you can call yourself a World Champion.”
