Ross Wilson followed up a gold medal win in Spain by retaining his National table tennis title at the England Senior National Championships on Sunday.

Minster’s Wilson beat Kim Daybell 3-1 in class 7-10 in Nottingham shortly after securing gold as the British Para Table Tennis Team started their 2022 international season.

In Spain, Wilson, who will bid to defend his World and Commonwealth titles this year, began with a comfortable 3-0 win against 23-year-old home player Ricard Sabio Ruiz on Friday in men’s class eight. He secured top place in Group 1 with a 3-0 win against the Tokyo Paralympic team silver medallist Nathan Pellissier from Australia, fighting back from 8-1 down in the third set before taking it 13-11.

The 26-year-old then beat Thomas Bouvais in the quarter-finals 3-0 before seeing off another Frenchman, Clement Berthier, 3-1 in the semi-finals. In the final he defeated former World and Paralympic team gold medallist Piotr Grudzien from Poland. Trailing 2-1, Wilson showed his class and determination to come back and win the fourth 11-5 and the fifth 11-6 to take the gold.

“It means a lot to win and come back strong in the first competition of the year after having such a big break after Tokyo,” said Wilson. “I feel that I put in some strong performances. I’m proud of the way I played and how much I enjoyed playing the competition.”

Wilson showed his match sharpness when coming up against Daybell at the national competition on the Sunday, having returned from the Costa Brava.

He led 2-0 and although Daybell took the third set and saved three match points in the fourth Wilson held on to take it 11-9 for a 3-1 win.

Despite playing so many matches over the previous three days in Spain, Wilson was also happy to represent para table tennis in Nottingham.

“It is all about showcasing para sport and just enjoying it and having fun,” he said. “I just love playing and that is the most important thing. I’m really happy.

“It’s been a while since I have played that many matches consecutively and the week has been a really busy schedule of matches so to be able to go through all of them has been so nice.

"I’ve got a different perspective on it now - being grateful to play those matches instead of looking at it as a stress that I’ve got so many things going on - and I’m really trying to use it as an outlet for everything else going on.”