Wandsworth table tennis star Aaron McKibbin reckons he has made a good start to the countdown to Rio 2016 after winning team bronze at the Lignano Master Open in Italy.

The 24 year old London 2012 Paralympic medalist and his team partner Ross Wilson were competing in the men's class 8 team event and started with a 2-0 win over the hosts.

However, a 2-0 defeat to Sweden left them needing to beat the Ukraine second team to progress from their group.

A 2-0 win earned them a semi-final against class 8 world number one Viktor Didukh and class 7 world number two Maksym Nikolenko, and the GB pair pushed them all the way but the Ukrainians clinched a 2-1 win to take them into the final and eventually gold.

In the singles event earlier in the tournament McKibbin won all three of his group matches, including a 3-1 defeat of the world number eight from Sweden, Linus Karlsson.

He then faced Ivan Mai in the quarter-finals and led 2-0 before a titanic struggle in the third set, which he lost 18-16, gave the momentum to his Ukrainian opponent who went on to win the match 3-2.

“I’m really happy because I feel that I have carried on from the form I showed in China last year,” said McKibbin.

“I felt confident going into the tournament and I feel I’ve played to a really good level - so there are definitely positives to take into the next few months."

He added: "Our doubles was much improved although we were a bit disappointed with the way we played in the doubles against Ukraine this time and we feel there are a few parts of our game we can work on to change that but overall we are quite happy with the way things are going.

"There is a long way to go before Rio but this was definitely a good start.”