GB’s Rob Davies, who this year became men’s class 1 European Champion and World number one, has received further recognition for his outstanding achievements with a nomination for the inaugural 2013 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Star Awards.

The 29 year old former rugby player from Brecon has been nominated for the Para Male Table Tennis Star presented by Tinsue, as selected by the ITTF Para Table Tennis Division. The other nominees are Ma Lin, from China, who won gold in men’s class 9 singles and team at the 2013 Asian Championships, and Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger, world number one in men’s class 3 who is unbeaten since the London 2012 Paralympics and winner in 2013 of gold at the European Championships, Czech Open, Italian Open and Slovenian Open.

The winner will be announced during the ITTF Star Awards to be held at the Raffles Hotel in Dubai on 11 January 2014. There are seven awards, including three chosen by the fans, with the proceeds of the night going to ITTF’s corporate social responsibility programme Dream Building that raises money for Para Table Tennis, Development and Junior Table Tennis initiatives.