Ethan Walsh missed out on a place at the Youth Olympic Games in a strong European qualifying event in Split.

The Stevenage athlete won one of his three group matches in the first stage, which saw two players qualify for the Games in Buenos Aires next year.

He had another chance through the second stage, which also had two qualifying places at stake, but a thrilling 4-3 defeat to an opponent from Bosnia-Herzegovina ended his chances, Walsh falling 11-9 in the decider having led 5-2.

The four players to qualify in the boys’ tournament were European Youth champion Ioannis Sgouropoulos of Greece, Vladimir Sidorenko of Russia, Medardas Stankevicius of Lithuania and Vladislav Ursu of Macedonia.

In the girls’ event, the qualifiers were Lucie Gauthier (FRA), Mariia Tailakova (RUS), Ning Jing (AZE) and Nadezhda Bogdanova (BLR).

There will be further opportunities to qualify at a series of events in 2018.

Results

Boys’ Singles
First stage, Group 7
Csaba Andras (HUN) bt Ethan Walsh 4-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5)
Walsh bt Dorian Girod (SUI) 4-2 (6-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6)
Maciej Kolodziejczyk (AUT) bt Walsh 4-2 (11-4, 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7)

Draw B
Luka Mihailovic (BIH) bt Walsh 4-3 (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9)