TODMORDEN table tennis player Megan Shackleton is looking to get a flying start to the season that will hopefully end with selection for the Great Britain team for the Paralympic Games.

With next year’s Games firmly on the horizon, it is an important year for the 15-year-old and the rest of the GB team as the qualification period for Rio finishes at the end of 2015.

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So Shackleton will be hoping to make a big impression at the Hungarian Open, which begins on Friday, before heading to Italy for the Lignano Master Open.

“I’ve had a good winter’s training,” she said. “I’ve been working on my fitness and making sure my stamina is good in matches. I’ve also been working with the team psychologist making sure I’m mentally prepared for all my matches and the things I’ll be facing in different countries and different environments.”

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.

“France has given me a lot of confidence for this year when the results are really going to matter,” she admitted. “Last year I was able to put in some good performances and hopefully I can maintain that into the new season.”

This is also an important year for the Todmorden High School pupil as she will sit her GCSEs and is keen to continue her education with perhaps a future career in journalism in mind.

“I’m managing the balance between school and table tennis well at the moment,” she said, “but it is going to become more difficult because a lot of my main tournaments are going to be around my GCSEs.

“The school is very supportive of me if I need to have extra lessons so fingers crossed I’ll be alright. It is important to me that I do well in both and it is a bit of a release from table tennis getting back to normality at school with my friends.”

Still relatively inexperienced Rio may come too soon for the GB Performance Squad’s youngest athlete and her main focus this year is to improve her world ranking and earn selection for the European Championships in Denmark in October.

“Rio is something extra to aim for,” Shackleton admitted. “I’ve wanted to go to an Olympics or Paralaympics since I was about eight or nine years old so having the target of achieving a life dream gives you even more motivation.”