Spanish paddler Dvorak gets Rio call as French Grundisch withdraws

Spaniard Galia Dvorak earned a last-minute call-up to the Rio Olympic Games table tennis women's singles event after French player Carole Grundisch withdrew due to injury, announced the organisers.

The two-time Olympian will join team-mates He Zhiwen and Shen Yanfei to take Spain's total number of players to three in table tennis competitions and it will be Dvorak's first time to appear in the singles, reports Xinhua.

In both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, the 28-year-old, who was born in Ukraine but moved to Spain with her family at the age of two, was a member of the Spanish squad in the women's team event.

Dvorak, placed 95th in world governing body ITTF's rankings, became the fifth paddler representing Spain to compete in a women's singles event at an Olympic Games.

She replaces Grundisch, placed 94th, after the 29-year-old Frenchwoman fell off her bicycle in Paris on Wednesday and broke her arm.

Grundisch posted a video on Facebook in which she revealed her heartbreak at missing out on what would have been her first Olympic Games.

--IANS

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