Special Olympics European Summer Games

Warsaw, Poland, 14-24 Sept 2010

Great Britain's Special Olympics tennis squad of six players has ended the 2010 Special Olympics European Summer Games in Warsaw, Poland with a total of seven medals.

Led by GB Head Coach Lesley Whitehead and Coach Matt Whitehead, both of West Bridgford Tennis Club, the team competed in singles and one doubles event playing preliminary and final rounds. Local players Michael Clarke and Zara Jurenko had a very successful games.

Zara approached the final day of tennis competition undefeated in her Group 1 women's singles round-robin matches against players from Kazakhstan and Poland and enhanced her position as the most successful female Special Olympics tennis player by beating Germany's Carmen Lelittko with her third straight sets victory of the week.

After winning mixed doubles gold with Zara earlier in the week, Michael also went into his last Group 3 men's singles match undefeated after his opening two matches against Hungarian and German opponents. However, despite putting up a big effort against Monaco's Christophe Mateu, Clarke missed out on the gold medal after Mateu won their match in a deciding third set.

The GB team were part of the 66-strong Special Olympics Great Britain delegation in Warsaw competing in 6 sports. The 46 athletes won a total of 88 medals consisting of 36 gold, 29 silver and 23 bronze medals.