Lisa John kept a promise to her father and brought back a gold medal from the World Youth Championships.

The 19-year-old, from Worthing, wanted to pull out of the two-week event in the Dominican Republic when dad Tony was struck down with meningitis seven days before she flew out.

But he insisted she competed and Lisa said : "I wanted to win the gold medal for him. My mind was all over the place at first but what was happening with my dad actually drove me on to play as well as I did. Now I am dedicating my success to him."

Lisa took the doubles crown with Zara Glover, from Portsmouth, as her father recovered at home after receiving emergency treatment at Worthing General Hospital.

She said: "I phoned home and there was a lump in my throat, my mum was in tears and my dad was emotional too. He's fine now. It was a wonderful moment. My parents were so pleased. It is unbelievable."

Lisa thought victory was beyond her and her Hampshire partner as they were up against two teams from the United States.

She said: "I thought we might get a medal but the Americans are so strong and I felt they would win it.

"It felt especially great when we stod on the podium as the national anthem played and looked down on the American teams."

Lisa and Zara overcame the leading American team, Kelly Kulick and Diandra Hyman, by 60 pins after a tense finish.

She said: "We had finished our matches and had to wait for Kelly and Diandra to do the same. It was more nerve racking than playing our matches.

"But when we saw they had failed we felt pretty good."

Lisa was also ninth in the singles, eighth in the team event and ninth overall in the All-Events Champion of Champions. She said: "It was an excellent tournament. There were some good players out there."

Lisa was crowned world under-17s singles champion in 1998 and last year helped England to a gold medal in the European Team Cup while finishing 12th in the World Senior Championships.

Lisa, a member of the AMF clubs in Worthing and Crawley, said: "Winning my first world title was something I will never forget but the second one is as special, particularly with what happened to my dad."

Tony said: "Lisa was reluctant to go, but by the time she flew out I was coming out of the high dependency ward on a drip. I rang her at 5.30am on the morning of her flight to wish her luck and tell her she had to go out and win a gold medal for me. I am so proud she did."

He added: "I was 43 on Sunday and only too glad to celebrate. I am lucky to be alive as they had no vaccine for the strain of meningitis I had."