Francesca Bullock

Kim Daybell, a 20 year old medical student at Leeds University and a member of the GB Para table tennis team, took bronze in the men’s class 10 singles at the Slovenian Open last week. He showed great determination and courage in winning his quarter final against Karim Boumedouha from France, saving a match point in the fourth set and a further four match points in the deciding fifth before clinching it 14-12.

“It wasn’t my best performance,” admitted Daybell, who represented Paralympics GB in London 2012. “It was late on in the evening and I was a bit sluggish so it was all about grit and grinding the game out.  My coach said if you can win when you are not playing well then you can definitely win when you are playing well so I’ve got to take the positives from it.”

Daybell had his chances in the semi-final and went down fighting 3-1 against the more experienced world number 6 Pavel Lukyanov from Russia. “Overall it’s been good,” he said, “but there are still lots of things I can work on. I’m pleased to get a medal – it’s my first singles medal for a while so it’s always nice.