Competing at the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium at the weekend, Stamper claimed the first medal for Britain as the 25-year-old from Liverpool won five matches in succession before battling to a narrow 8-7 final defeat against Vladimir Kim of Russia.

Despite the loss, it marked the end of a superb year for Stamper after he claimed a bronze at the 2011 World Championships and victory at the 2011 British Open to establish himself as a strong medal contender at the London 2012 Olympics.

"It's been a great year and I've turned it around at the right time," he said.

"I've put in some good performances and in the past some of those good performances haven't turned into medals.

"This year they have and I've managed to keep it going throughout the year."

In total, Stamper has won an impressive 27 of his 29 matches this year but admits he needs to work hard to carry his strong form into next year.

"I'm just glad to have reached the final and to have won another medal," he said.

"I'm hoping to keep my run of form going into 2012 but I've said before, I just take one tournament at a time."


Meanwhile, Welsh teenager Jones added another medal to her growing collection despite being the lone female in the official GB squad in Paris.

The 18-year-old from Flint made it comfortably to the semi-final but lost out to French rival Marlène Harnois.

However, Jones will be confident of securing 2012 Olympic nomination next year after claiming silver at the World Championships and gold at the British Open and she admitted she was proud of her achievement in Paris.

"I felt great going into all my fights but it was the semi-final, where I didn't do so good," said Jones, who won gold at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last year.

"But I've beaten her before and I've just got to look forward to next year now.

"I've got two more big competitions next year before the European Championships in Manchester and then it's the Olympics so I've just got to keep improving until then."

Elsewhere for Britain, Mancunian Jordan Gayle lost to the Russian Kim in the quarterfinals, while another -68kg Olympic contender, Tony Grisman, lost in the third round.

There was also disappointment for London 2012 test event winner Aaron Cook as the 20-year-old from Dorset went down in the quarter-finals to long standing Greek rival, Nikolas Tzellos in what was a reverse of their 2010 European Championship final result.

But there was a huge boost for Mahama Cho, another former GB Academy player, who achieved two wins including the scalp of South Korea's Olympic champion, Cha Dong-Min.

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