Teaching assistant Sam Newton went back to work at Spalding Academy on Monday with a gold and silver medal draped around his neck.
Last Thursday Newton won the archery tournament at the European Transplant and Dialysis Sports Championships in Italy in record breaking fashion.
The gold medal adds to the silver for badminton he won earlier in the season while competing at the games.
He says he attended the games in honour of the person who passed away whose kidney and pancreas he received so he could lead a more normal life after being diagnosed with diabetes aged three.
“It was great to be a part of the British team and to compete for my country,” said Newton who tweeted that he’d been “looking at his gold and grinning like a loon”.
He was the favourite for the medal and stormed through qualifying as the leading competitor.
Newton then won his semi-final advancing to the final where he came up against a German competitor of much higher class.
In a tight encounter Newton kept his head to take the win and gold medal.
Despite recording a score of 278 out of 300, which has since been confirmed as a European record, he wasn’t entirely pleased by his performance.
“It was a bigger target than I was used to,” he said. “While I’ve got to say I was happy with the result, I was unhappy with how I shot.
“There were certain circumstances that made it difficult, including have some possessions that went missing, but I was able to keep my head, particularly and made sure I hit my shots.
“It’s always important to keep my head, particularly in archery as if you get a bit nervous then you tend to go wrong.”
Next for Newton is the British Transplant and Dialysis games which this year will also act as a qualifier for the World Championships which Britain is hosting in 2019 in Gateshead.
