MEGAN Shackleton got the perfect start to the new season by winning two medals at the Hungarian Open.

The talented table tennis player from Todmorden was aiming to get her campaign off to a flying start in her hunt to be included in the Great Britain team for next year’s Paralympic Games in Rio.

And she did those chances no harm at all.

Competing in the Class 4-5 category, the 15-year-old topped her group after 3-0 wins against Jelena Sisic from Croatia and the Romanian Dorina Vargatu and then won her semi-final against Monique Sirgant from France 3-1 to reach the final.

Despite losing a tight third game against the Austrian Helke Koller 14-12. Shackleton fought back to level the match at 2-2 and then took the deciding game 11-4 to take the gold.

The following day, the Todmorden High School pupil added a team silver (women’s class 1-5) to her individual gold, Shackleton and her playing partners Alena Kanova from Slovakia and the Israeli Chagit Yona Brill also came through their group with two wins and beat a combined Italian/Austrian team in the semi-finals 3-1. Despite the experience of former World champion Kanova they lost 3-1 to Korea in the final but Shackleton is learning all the time and is a great prospect for the future.

Last year was a breakthrough year for Shackleton, winning her first singles medal in Romania in June and then finishing the season with two gold medals in the Cote d’Azur International in France.

“I played well,” said Shackleton, “As there were a lot of distractions in the hall.

“ I feel that I have improved a lot since France and I am controlling my nerves a lot better.”

Shackleton, will now travel on to Italy to compete in the Lignano Master Open.

Already she has proved that her hard work in the close season is paying off.

“Last year I was able to put in some good performances and hopefully I can maintain that,” she said.