GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S Billy Shilton, a member of the British Para Table Tennis Team, has won a gold and a silver medal at the PTT Belgian Open.

The 19-year-old Shilton, who is from Stonehouse and occasionally turns out for Woodchester in the Cirencester Table Tennis League, topped the podium with fellow teenager Joshua Stacey in the Men’s Class 9 team event.

He also picked up silver in the Men's Class 8 singles.

In total, the British team won 14 medals in Belgium, four of them gold.

Shilton was impressive in winning his three group matches 3-0 in the singles tournament which gave him a bye in the quarter-finals in which he was a comfortable 3-0 winner against Curtis Caron from Canada.

That took him through to a semi-final against Mathieu Loicq and the Belgian former World and Paralympic champion edged a close match 11-9 in the fifth.

“I felt that I played to a good level,” said Shilton. “All the things I’ve been working on in training are coming together but it is a slow process. I’m happy to win a medal but I’m disappointed to have lost so narrowly in the semi-final.”

The new combination of Shilton and Stacey combined well in the doubles and reached the semi-finals with 2-0 wins against Germany and Belgium/Korea.

A 2-1 win against Japan took them through to the final against the Romanian/French partnership of Daniel Dinca and Lucas Didier and after winning the doubles 3-1, Shilton won the gold for his team with a 3-0 win in the singles against Didier.

“I’m really pleased to come away with the gold in the team event with Josh,” said Shilton, “as we haven’t played together before. Our doubles was very good and that gave us confidence for the singles matches.”