BASINGSTOKE'S table tennis star Anaya Patel was delighted to take on the best players in the country and come away with a silver medal from the Cadet National Cup.
The tournament sees the top 10 players on the Table Tennis England rankings play each other on a round-robin basis to decide the champion.
The 14-year-old was seeded second for the event in Corby and won her first eight matches, including some tight ones against fourth seed Mari Baldwin, who she beat 4-3 (11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 20-18, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7) in the penultimate round, and sixth seed Amy Marriott, which also went to a decider.
It set up effectively a gold medal play-off against top seed Ruby Chan in the last round, and it was Chan who prevailed winning 4-2 (11-4, 5-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-4, 11-8).
Patel, who attends Kendrick School in Reading, said: “It feels good to win the silver. I could have played better against Ruby, but I can’t complain.
“I managed to keep my energy throughout and play well throughout. Mari really pushed me and it was important to keep my head and stay positive when I was behind in matche
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