Ormesby table tennis protégé Paul Drinkhall is delighted at being named in England's Commonwealth Games squad.
The 15-year-old, from Loftus, arrived back home last night after his triple medal success at the World Junior Championships in the Dominican Republic to be told the good news.
He will be the youngest ever player to represent England at the Commonwealths when they are staged in Melbourne in Australia in March next year.
Drinkhall, who is a pupil at Guisborough's Laurence Jackson School, is the fourth Teessider to get the Commonwealth call after long jumper Chris Tomlinson, cyclist Chris Newton and race walker Johanna Jackson.
His selection for Melbourne comes on the back of a phenomenal season in which the highlight was winning the gold medal in the boys singles and team event in the European Youth championships in Prague in July.
Drinkhall said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be called up to the senior England team for Melbourne. I think that the table tennis competition is wide open."
England will be defending the team gold they won in Manchester, but will face stiff opposition from India, Singapore, Wales, Nigeria, Australia and Canada in particular.
Drinkhall added: "I'm really looking forward to going to Melbourne. It will be a great experience and a great opportunity. I'm hoping to win a medal in all four events in which I'll be competing."
He will enjoy considerable family support at the Games as mum Karen, dad Andy and brother and sister Bryn and Michelle will all be making the trip to Melbourne.
Drinkhall dominated the English youth scene this season, not just winning his own age group at Under-15, but also winning the Under-18 and Under-21 titles as well.
He was the first player to win all five titles in the English junior championships.
Drinkhall was also selected for the England senior team for the European championships in Denmark in March and for the World Championships in Shanghai in May.
He also won a gold and two silvers at the World Cadet Championships in the Caribbean over the weekend.
He said: "It was great to be part of the gold medal winning England team but I was disappointed to lose in the singles final to the Japanese player Matsudaira.
"I knew it was going to be hard against him as he has some very good serves and has done extremely well in international junior and senior events recently. But I beat him in the Polish open last month and had chances to win but did not play on my top form. If I had, I think I could have taken the title."
Drinkhalll leaves Teesside on Friday for a month's training in Asia, which kicks off his build-up to Melbourne, starting with ten days in Taiwan and the remainder in mainland China practising with some of the best players in the world.
