STONEHOUSE table tennis star Billy Shilton faces a hectic start to the season.

The 18-year-old takes part in the Italian Open, today (Wednesday) and will then fly back to compete in the English National Championships in Nottingham on March 4.

Shilton trains full-time with the GB Para Table Tennis Team in Sheffield and is now part of the elite Performance Squad.

“Training has been going really well,” said Shilton. “We’ve been working on a lot of technical things and leading up to Italy we have been doing a lot of match play and I’ve been playing in a number of able bodied domestic tournaments. Being part of the Performance Squad now is extra motivation. When I first started playing table tennis I set myself two targets – to move to Sheffield to train full time and to get into the Performance Squad so now I have done that I need to set new targets.

“I want to play the best table tennis I can in Italy – to put into practice all the things I have been working on in training and to get as many wins as possible. Playing in front of a home crowd in the Nationals will be great – I’m really looking forward to it as it is something I haven’t done before and it will be good experience.”