HAMILTON’S Melissa Tapper has been acknowledged, along with her team members, at the Paralympics Australia Awards held in Sydney last week, collecting the Women’s Paralympic Team of the Year.

It comes, as the Women’s Team C9-10 won silver medals at Tokyo last year, giving the local table tennis product her first chance to stand on the podium at an Olympics or Paralympics.

Along with Qian Yang and Lei Lina, Tapper helped secure the silver medal for Australia at the 2020 Paralympics and collected the team of the year award ahead of swimming and goalball teams.

Tapper said she was shocked to collect the award at the event in Sydney.

“It was totally unexpected for us to win the award as I thought the men’s swimming team would take out the award, so it was a nice surprise,” she said.

“We were all in attendance at the award dinner in Sydney too and we got to catch up with the support staff etc. from the games so we all shared in the recognition.”

The awards and nominations eventuated from a record-breaking Tokyo 2020 Paralympics campaign, which saw table tennis win six medals (two gold and four silver) and finish second to China on the table tennis medal tally.

Originally missing selection for the Tokyo 2020 games, the enforced change of date for the competitions due to COVID-19 worked in her favour.

“COVID was a blessing in disguise for me, as I had an extra year to work on my game and get the small things right to win selection in 2021,” Tapper said.

“Not being able to travel overseas or interstate during that period didn’t affect us too much, as the whole team lives in Melbourne and we were training with and against each other.

“While it’s not ideal to miss tournament play, the time away did allow us regather for Tokyo and it was a thrill to take the silver medal.”

With the 2022 Commonwealth Games being held in Birmingham, Tapper will not get to defend her 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold medal after she failed to qualify for the team that was selected last month.

“It certainly wasn’t the plan to miss selection, but the extra time will allow me to prepare for the national titles in July which are being held in Queensland at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast,” she said.

Her preparation for this event begins soon and is looking to get back on the winner’s podium.

Whether she goes on to prepare for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024 is yet to be decided, but the prospect of playing at a home Olympics in Brisbane in 10 years is an intriguing proposition.

“I want to get to the end of this year and then reassess my plans going forward and whether I go on to prepare for Paris, but as far as Brisbane goes, I look forward to being there but maybe not as an athlete,” Tapper said.