STONEHOUSE table tennis player Billy Shilton will be hoping to finish the international season on a high.

The 16-year-old Maidenhill pupil will be one of 10 young GB athletes competing in the Cote d’Azure International Para table tennis tournament in Hyères les Palmiers, France (October 23-26).

Shilton said: “I’ve been training hard and playing a lot of national able bodied tournaments in England and Wales because match practice is very important. I try to play as much as I can to prepare for international tournaments.

Shilton suffers from Charcot–Marie–Tooth (CMT), a disease characterised by progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation.

He said: "I’ve been working a lot on my strength - I get unbalanced quite a lot because of my disability so I’ve been trying to improve on that and also playing the right shots at the right time.”

He won team gold in the Slovenia Open in May and his first individual medal at the Spanish Open in June, has been training with the GB Performance Squad on a regular basis and has taken further inspiration from the team’s recent success at the World Championships in China from which his  Year 7 team-mate Will Bayley returned as World champion.

“Will got gold in China which is what I want to do in the future,” admits Shilton, “so that inspires me to do well and I’m really excited about France - I can’t wait.”