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Laurens Devos
Laurens Devos (born 15 August 2000) is a Belgian table tennis player who was the Paralympic champion in men's singles class 9. He has also won four European titles and most recently, a world title for his country. Laurens Devos lives in Oostmalle.[1][2] The son of Mario Devos and Christel, he has 2 brothers and a twin sister, Isabel. His 6 years older brother Robin Devos is as of 14 September 2016 the second-highest ranked able-bodied Belgian table tennis player, ranked number 119 on the World Ranking.[3] Caused by a lack of oxygen at birth, Laurens suffers from mild hemiplegia which results in a loss of mobility on the right side of his body.[4][5] He plays left-handed. He studies at the Topsportschool in Leuven, where he is the only student with a disability.[6] Sporting careerLaurens Devos was ranked world number 2 in his class before going to the Paralympics. In 2014 he won the GDF Suez Trophy (the award for most promising young Belgian para-athlete).[7] He won the 2015 European Championships in Vejle, Denmark.[1][2] He is national table tennis champion in his age category (able-bodied category).[5][6] With his victory over Dutch Gerben Last in 3 straight sets, Devos became the youngest player ever to win table tennis gold at the Paralympics.[8] At the 2016 ITTF Star Awards, Devos won Male Para Table Tennis Star, the award for Paralympic table tennis player of the year.[9] Devos reached the first round of the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships, but then lost 4-3 from the Austrian Andreas Levenko.[10] On 17 December 2016, Devos was named the Paralympian of the Year at the Belgian Sportsman of the year ceremony.[11] He won his first world championship title in 2018 in Lasko, Slovenia by defeating Iurii Nozdrunov of Russia.[12] External linksNotes
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