A student from Bramhope has done West Yorkshire proud in England’s top individual event for schools table tennis players.

Shayan Siraj, a year eight pupil at The Grammar School at Leeds, competed at the Butterfly Individual Championships run by the England Schools Table Tennis Association.

The competition at Doncaster Dome attracted 300 players from 50 counties to compete in four age groups. Each county can enter just one player in each age group, and Shayan qualified for the championship by winning the title of under-13 West Yorkshire champion in the preliminary rounds.

On the day Shayan defeated some of the best players from across England, including the current UK number two player with a score of 3-0. He was runner up in the under-13 category after a 3-2 loss in the final.

Shayan has been playing table tennis since the age of seven and is coached by his father Waseem Siraj, who accompanied him to the championships.

Waseem said: “It was a great joy to watch Shayan reach the final of the competition by achieving some tremendous wins with high-quality table tennis.”

Since joining GSAL Senior School two years ago, Shayan has helped the school’s under-13 team win the West Yorkshire team title two years running.