OKEHAMPTON College student Mari Baldwin ended a successful season with a silver medal at the U10-U13 National Table Tennis Championships.

The 13-year-old was seeded second in the Under-13 singles and duly reached the final.

There, she faced Sophie Chiang, the sixth seed but a dangerous player who won the Under-12 title last year and who had knocked out top seed Ruby Chan in the semi-finals.

It was a close match and Baldwin twice led, only for her opponent to come back and win 3-2 (6-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8).

Baldwin, who earlier this year won gold medals at the English Schools Championships and at Table Tennis England’s inter-regional finals, was still pleased to get on the podium.

She said: ‘I was expected to get to the final and I did, so I’m happy with that, but I just couldn’t get to the top. She was very consistent and knew what to do against my style. I’m a bit disappointed because it was so close in the end.’

In the doubles, Baldwin and Lara Gimbuta were beaten 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2) in the quarter-finals by Kirsty Maull and Amilia Baker.