by Alex Hoad at the ExCeL Arena

Paralympic medallist Ben Quilter said he found it really tough to ‘drag’ himself back from the disappointment of missing out on gold to claim the bronze at ExCeL on Thursday evening.

The visually impaired 30-year-old, who has lived in Stone for the past five years and who trains at the home of British Judo in Dartford, recovered from early disappointment to claim a medalin the under-60kg class, despite carrying a secret injury for seven weeks before the Games.

Quilter (pictured) fnished fifth in the same class four years ago but has since gone on to be crowned World and European Champion.

He received a bye through the opening round on Thursday morning but was handed a clash with Beijing gold medallist Mouloud Noura from Algeria in the quarter-final.

After a cagey affair which saw him on the back foot, Quilter was flung to the mat with a Tai-otishi throw that secured victory by Ippon with just 100 seconds of the five-minute contest remaining.

Quilter had to raise himself within half an hour of the defeat to face Mongolian Munkhbat Aajim in the opening round of the repechage.

A powerful Koshi-guruma throw ended the contest emphatically to seal the Brit a clash with American Ronald Hawthorne, who took a narrow early lead before being blown away by two Waza-ari scores back-to-back which ended the contest with two minutes remaining.

Quilter needed to raise himself one last time to claim the medal and he did it in style, despatching Japan’s Takaaki Hirai in little over a minute thanks to a successful 25-second Kurure-tate-shiho-gatame hold to secure Ippon and send the packed house wild.

A reflective Quilter revealed: “Seven weeks ago I snapped my cruciate ligament and ruptured the medial ligament on the inside of my knee and there was a massive question mark over whether I’d even be here. So to be here and to win bronze is fantastic.

“I think coming into today I kidded myself a little bit that I could still perform to my best. I was far from my best but I had enough. I’m just really pleased to have won a medal.”

He added: “I came here for gold. In Beijing I was still learning my trade, it was my first major tournament. I have come here as World and European champion for one medal - a gold - but then seven weeks ago my train was kind of derailed and I had to get back on it and do the best with what I’ve got and luckily it was enough to win me a bronze.

“I’m delighted to be walking away with a medal. It’s a real achievement and something I will be very proud of. It means a massive amount to me.”

He admitted: “This morning (after the first match) I wanted to go home and I happily would have done. It was such a long journey back from that.

“The knee wasn’t really troubling me in the first fight to be honest. It’s heavily strapped and I’ve had lots of pain relief, lots of injections on the way here.

“It was restrictive in that I couldn’t relax and do my judo. I wasn’t myself. I couldn’t use tactics I would normally use, but I’m not going to use it as an excuse.

“The Algerian’s a fantastic judo player and he outdid me. Alright it might have changed it slightly if I had been fully-fit but I don’t know, he fought well and I can’t take it away from him.”

Quilter admitted: “I don’t know how I got up for the Mongolian. I think the crowd helped massively.

“In a combat sport like this when the chips are down it’s easy to give up and think ‘it’s not my day’ – it was really, really tough to drag myself back from that, I’m not going to lie.

“But the crowd were fantastic and I didn’t want to let anyone down, especially myself.”

Reflecting on his nail-biting hold in his final match, Quilter added: “I think I can quite honestly say it was the worst hold down I’ve ever done and I think it was the longest 25 seconds of my life, but I’m happy.”

He said the medal would not have been possible without the backing of the hugely supportive crowd which generated one of the best atmospheres of either summer Games so far.

Quilter said: “It was amazing. The support was out of this world. I wouldn’t be here for a minute without it.

“It is phenomenal - every single person in this building cheering and chanting has got me here and kept me going.

“I’m absolutely overjoyed to have won it infront of my home crowd.”