He may not have come away with gold from this weekend’s Para Czech Open but Paisley table tennis star Martin Perry insists a third-place finish in the team competition still represented an impressive outing.

Great Britain para-table tennis player Perry has already enjoyed a successful summer to date, including winning his first international gold medal at the Romania Open in June.

And the 21-year-old added to that collection in the Czech Republic over the weekend, teaming up with Billy Shilton to take bronze.

He had earlier failed to make it out of his singles group but put that disappointment to one side to secure a podium finish in the men’s team event.

The medal mirrored the colour Perry won at the start of his Great Britain career in the Czech Open two years ago – although the former Gleniffer High School pupil insisted the performance and standard of play was at a whole different level.

“That was probably some of the best doubles table tennis I have played in my career,” he said.

“The semi-final was a close one and the guys we were playing are a class above us and play in the top 20 in the world but we still managed to match them all the way and if I’m being honest, we deserved to win it."

“I was really happy with my team performance, I was disappointed with the singles competition but I channelled that disappointment and harnessed it for the team competition."

“Two years ago the Czech Open was one of my first tournaments for GB so it was a bit of déjà vu coming back."

“But the standard of competition was much, much higher than two years ago and I feel like my level has come on so much.”

Perry gets little time to rest with the next major competition taking place in Belgium at the end of October.

And while happy with his team bronze, he promised there is still plenty more to come from him, especially in the singles.

“I’m straight back into things, I’ve got a competition coming up in Belgium in a couple of weeks so I’ll be training hard for that,” he added.

“I would like to be a bit further ahead than I am at the minute in terms of rankings but I’ve got a lot of tournaments coming up between now and Christmas, with the last one out in Costa Rica."

“I’ll be hoping to improve my singles, I really want to try and get out of my group in Belgium.”

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