An Invictus Games gold medallist has won a different type of competition after showing off his skills in the kitchen. Alex Krol, who won gold for tennis at this year's games, was named the champ of the cookery comp for veterans at Swinton Park.

The competition is designed to give wounded, injured and sick service personnel a chance to see what it's like in a professional kitchen. Run with support from Help for Heroes, the challenging task can ensure veterans walk away with newly-gained skills.

Alex took on the experience to learn more about cooking in order to help his wife out with the food preparation following the birth of their first child a few weeks earlier. He was a former member of the Royal Marines, however, his military career was ended after a motorbike accident in 2004, which left him paralysed from the chest down due to severe spinal injuries.

He completed the challenge with two other competitors, Julie Hopkins and Laura Knowles, with all three training for a day with a Michelin star chef. Each of the competitors learned how to make their restaurant's signature dish of game.

After training, they then went head to head to make their dish on their own with only two hours in which to do so before putting their meal forward for judging. 

Alex whipped up a plate of pigeon with chickpea dahl, broccoli puree, mini bread-rumbled haggis, fig jam and marinated stem broccoli. This dish impressed both judges, Steve Bulmer of Swinton Park Cookery School and Richard Townsend from Gourmet Game. 

It seems that Alex was able to use techniques that he developed playing tennis while in the kitchen too. He told Help for Heroes: “It sounds daft but it’s all about visualisation and regarding each stage as a chapter of a book – that’s how I approach tennis too.

“There was a lot of elements going on in my dish so I had to concentrate really hard but I knew, if I could pull it off on the day, it would be alright.

“Thanks to the training I was given by Richard Allen, the executive chef at Rockcliffe Hall near Darlington, I now have the confidence and the skills to push myself to do more in the kitchen and try new things.”

All the contestants received a set of Meyer pans, while Alex got another week of training at Swinton Park to help him in the kitchen at home even more.