BRADFORD'S Abraham Sellado is celebrating winning his first national title.

The 12-year-old teamed up with Devon’s Kacper Piwowar to win the under-13 boys’ doubles title at the Mark Bates Ltd U11 & U13 National Championships, whilst representing England.

The victory justified top seeding for the pair, who won a tight final 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 16-14, 12-10) against twins Hugo and Leo Nguyen, from Plymouth.

Sellado said: “I think our play is quite similar, so we’re a good pairing. It feels amazing, it’s the first gold and hopefully in the future I can get a few more.”

In the singles, Sellado was third seed and duly reached the semi-finals. However, he was defeated 3-1 (11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8) by second seed Leo Nguyen and had to settle for a bronze.

His father, Alvin Sellado, caught up with the T&A after his son's victory and said: "His goal has always been to win national titles, especially after he started to progress from his younger school days.

"He managed to claim a bronze when he was nine and last year he claimed silver, so it was always the next step for him to win a national title either in the singles or doubles, and now he has got that.

"I'm extremely proud of my son for winning this title, it's a fantastic achievement. To represent your country at his age and to be able to perform at such a high standard, it's truly incredible and I can't praise him enough.

"But, it's important that we lower expectations for him because he is only 12 and we don't want to put too much pressure on him because of that. There is already added pressure on him because he's ranked number three in the whole of England and he is aware of these pressures.

"He knows he needs to perform at a certain level, but we do our best to encourage him to enjoy the game and love what he's doing which I know he is at the minute.

"But, as I say, we need to lower the expectations because of his young age."

This year the talented youngster has started to take his table tennis endeavours to the international stage, with a lot of travelling now involved in his schedule.

Discussing the topic, his father said: "It can be tough being away from my son for long periods of time because as a parent you want to spend as much time as possible with your children.

"But, at the same time you have to let your child spread their wings and it's part and parcel of the nature of high standard sport. I'm just extremely glad he's enjoying what he's doing."

His father added: "If we can support him then we will and help him in whatever he wants to achieve in the sport. At the minute he's representing England internationally, so of course there are targets beyond that.

"The most obvious would be reaching the Commonwealth Games and then after that the Olympics, but we will support him every step of the journey."