Although Get Kids Going! supported athlete did not make the finals in his first Paralympics, we are so proud of his performance in Tokyo and his positive attitude to Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi who he played against.
Dermot Bailey bowed out of the men’s singles 6-2, 6-0 against Spain’s Caverzaschi. Just after the match Dermot said “It’s tough; it’s disappointing really. I don’t think I executed my game plan that well and then went too passive for a bit. Maybe it’s the pressure of the Games. I don’t think I did a massive amount wrong, I just didn’t do enough things right when I probably should have done, to be honest.”
However, he was a great sport and congratulated Caverzaschi and wished him all the best in the Paralympics.
Dermot is now back to training and said “Can’t believe it’s already been a week since I competed at Tokyo. Still feeling disappointed about how I performed but I just want to thank everyone for waking up at 3am to watch and all the messages of support before and after my match! Back to training now and put in the work towards the next goal”.
One of the many messages of support came from wheelchair tennis player, Louise Hunt, who Get Kids Going! have supported since she was six years old. Louise has now retired from playing but did an amazing job commenting on Paralympics wheelchair tennis for Channel 4.
She also appeared on Channel 4’s The Last Leg last Sunday and had fun teaching the show’s presenters, Adam Hills, Alex Brooker, Josh Widdicombe and guest Johnny Vegas how to play wheelchair tennis.
Formerly a member of Paralympics GB’s ‘Paralympic Inspiration Programme’, Dermot remains a great inspiration to us and other young athletes. Before his debut appearance at the Paralympics he said “If I play well and win, brilliant. If I play well and lose, I can´t complain. I’m not going to put pressure on myself”.
We are so proud of Dermot and wish him all the best for the future.