PADDLE ace Emily Bolton maintained her superb recent form as she won team gold and doubles silver medals at the Italian Youth Open.

Days after winning the Junior National Cup against the best young players in England, the Askam-in-Furness teenager played alongside Tin-Tin Ho and Kate Cheer in the Junior Girls’ Team event in Lignano.

She helped England top their group by beating Portugal, Italy A and Croatia all by 3-1 scorelines – Bolton notching wins against Italy and Croatia.

They then saw off a combined team from Poland, Serbia and Slovenia 3-2 to reach the final against Japan.

Bolton was defeated by singles silver medallist Miyuu Kihara in the first match, but two wins by Ho and a defeat for Cheer meant it was 2-2 going into the decisive fifth match.

The former Askam Village School and Dowdales pupil rose to the occasion magnificently, defeating Satsuki Odo 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 13-11) to seal gold.

In the doubles, Bolton and Ho were seeded seventh but defeated the second seeds in the quarter-finals and the third seeds in the semis, to book a final place against eighth seeds Tijana Jokic and Dragana Vignjevic, of Serbia.

But despite fighting all the way, the English pair had to settle for silver as their opponents triumphed 3-2 (8-11, 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6).

In the junior singles, Bolton came through the group stage with two wins from three and then beat Slovakia’s Simona Horvathova 4-3 (11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 6-11, 4-11, 11-4, 11-6) in the last 64.

But she found top seed Kihara of Japan too strong as she lost 4-0 in the next round.

At the Junior National Cup in Milton Keynes, the 18-year-old was invited to the tournament because of her position near the top of the Table Tennis England rankings and took on nine other top players in a round-robin event. Seeded first, Bolton was surprisingly beaten by sixth seed Gauri Duhan – who went on to win bronze – on the first day.

But it proved her only defeat as she won all eight other matches to seal the gold, a 4-0 win over eventual silver medallist Charlotte Bardsley proving crucial.

Bolton felt she had been under pressure to win the title in the absence of the number one junior player Ho, who was on duty with England at the World Championships.

She said: “I’m happy – it’s the first time I’ve won because normally Tin-Tin is here. After losing on the first day to Gauri, I had a lot of pressure to win all my matches on Sunday. I had Charlotte Bardsley first and winning that 4-0 gave me confidence for the rest of the day. I’m happy with how I played.”

Bolton’s next competition will be the PG Mutual National Championships this month.