Billy Shilton won gold in the men’s class 8 at the ITTF World Para Challenger Wladyslawowo in Poland.
The Stonehouse table tennis star began with a 3-0 win against the talented 11-year-old from Poland Tobiasz Glowczyk, silver medallist in the World AbilitySport Youth Games, and secured his place in the last 16 as winner of group 5 with a 3-1 win against Nicklas Westerberg, taking the fourth set 14-12 after the former European bronze medallist from Sweden had fought back from 2-0 down.
He beat Kamil Kowalski, the World AbilitySport Youth Games bronze medallist from Poland 3-1 and then came through a five-set battle against World number seven Emil Andersson, taking the deciding set 11-7 after the former World and Paralympic medallist from Sweden had levelled at 2-2.
Shilton produced a great performance in the semi-finals to beat World number three Clement Berthier from France 3-0 and went on to clinch the gold medal with a 3-1 win in the final against 18-year-old World number 12 Borna Zohil from Croatia, who won gold in the World Paralympic Qualification Tournament last year.
“I’m obviously unbelievably happy to have won gold,” said Shilton, who was continuing his great start to the season after reaching the final of the Singapore Smash last month and winning the English National Para class 6-10 title last weekend. “I think winning a tight match against Emil set me up for the day. I felt I had a lot of confidence after that match, and it showed in the last two matches I played. I played probably some of my best table tennis against Clement in the semi-final and used that confidence going into the final against Borna. I’ve put a lot of work in after Paris – I was really disappointed with my singles efforts there and I’ve been working really hard to not have that feeling of disappointment again.”
