By Mohamed Hamza in Southampton

Portugal's Filipe Paszkiewicz is living the dream after representing his country at the inaugural DUPR European Pickleball Championships in Southampton.

The Porto-based sound design teacher first picked up the sport while living in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic, and though padel was his first choice, pickleball proved the perfect panacea.

And while the joys of pickleball are enough in their own right, the 42-year-old could not believe he would be representing his homeland in a sport, much less during the fifth decade of his life.

“I was living in Singapore and during the pandemic there were very little sports we could play,” said Paszkiewicz.

“Coming from Portugal, we had padel and Singapore didn’t so I looked at people playing pickleball and thought ‘It’s a racket sport’ so let me try it and I’ve been playing since.

“It’s very social, more so than padel. It’s more even between men and women so it’s a more balanced game and the nature of the sport hooks you up.

“Our first official club started in 2017 then it started popping up here and there and I can gauge from our league, we have 500 players who go to the league but not constant.

“I would say 300 hardcore and another 200 that come and go and then we have a lot of expats that come visit and play so it’s a fluid community.”

Pickleball is a fast-growing sport in Europe having first started in the US in the 1960s, it is a hybrid racket sport that is popular for its accessibility for all ages and abilities.

Pickleball gets its name from its American founders, with the family game created in 1965 named after their pet dog Pickle.

The European Championships saw players compete in men’s, women’s and mixed doubles, across both the Open and Senior categories.

Individual medals were on offer in each of the disciplines, with the medal tallies also added up to decide the overall Champions of Europe.

He added: “It’s great. As a child, you imagine representing your country and I never thought in my forties I would represent my country in a sport so it’s very rewarding.

“It’s amazing that in so little time we managed to get so many countries represented here. It’s really astonishing that pickleball was a sport that five years ago was maybe only in the UK or Spain or Germany or France but it’s everywhere now.”

Find out more information about the European Pickleball Championships by visiting www.europeanpickleballfederation.org