STONEHOUSE star Billy Shilton won gold at the Czech Para Open ahead of the Paris Paralympic Games. 

World champions Billy Shilton and Paul Karabardak (men’s class 14), Joshua Stacey and Aaron McKibbin (men’s class 18) and Fliss Pickard and Bly Twomey (women’s class 14) all won their respective events. 

Billy Shilton and Paul Karabardak progressed to the quarterfinals as winners of group 2 after 3-0 wins against Filip Prchlik and Jan Malec from Czechia and Aleksej Radukic and Nemanja Majkic from Serbia.

They beat Russian Seyed Hosseinipour, competing here as an individual neutral athlete, and Ibrahim Hamadtou from Egypt 3-0 and then beat Fredrik Skjold Hinze and Krizander Magnussen from Norway 3-0 in the semi-final.

Will Bayley and Martin Perry also progressed as winners of group 3 after 3-0 wins against the Norwegians Skjold Hinze and Magnussen and Lukas Maxa and Petr Hnizdo from Czechia.

They fought back from 2-0 down to beat Daniel Horut and Zbynek Lambert from Czechia 11-7 in the fifth and came through another five-set battle against Sam Gustafsson and Jonas Hansson from Sweden 11-8 in the fifth to set up an all-GB final.

At 1-1 Shilton and Karabardak edged a tight third set 14-12 and it proved decisive as they went on to take the fourth 11-4 for a 3-1 win.

Shilton said: "“I’m happy to win gold with Paul and I think we played some really good doubles.

“It is never nice to play against your teammates and I thought it was a very high-level match.

"Will and Martin are a very good pair and credit to them they played a really good match, but I think Paul and I were at our best level in the final and played some really good stuff, so I’m really pleased.”

Karabardak added: “I thought the final was a fantastic match and both teams played well and deserved to win.

"We managed to take the third set 14-12 after some really big rallies and I think that was crucial and gave us the platform to go on and win.

"Billy and I played really well, and this will give us good momentum going into Paris.”

The Paralympic Games will be taking place in the French capital between Wednesday, August 28 and Sunday, September 8.