Pitchford & Hursey to compete in Olympic table tennis

Liam Pitchford is heading to his fourth Olympics and Anna Hursey her first

Liam Pitchford and Anna Hursey have been named as Team GB's two table tennis players to compete at the Paris Olympics.

Pitchford, 30, will become the first British player in table tennis to feature at four different Games as he participates 12 years on from his first appearance at London 2012.

Hursey, aged 18, will make her Olympic debut and is set to become the first Welsh player to represent Team GB since table tennis was introduced to the Olympics in 1988.

Both will compete in the singles.

Pitchford, from Chesterfield, is a double Commonwealth champion and a six-time British National champion.

He has recovered from a shoulder injury in time to compete in Paris.

"It's a bit of a relief. I knew I'd done enough to make the ranking a while ago, but you never know for sure because things can change," he said.

"I’ve been getting my shoulder back to 100%, doing my rehab and getting in good shape.

"I’ve been back on the table a couple of weeks now and feeling good, so I’ll be heading straight to Paris, ready to go."

Hursey, from Cardiff, began competing at senior international level at just 10 years old.

She became the youngest athlete in history to compete at a Commonwealth Games a year later in 2018 when she represented Wales at the Gold Coast Games.

Hursey has since won a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, broken into the world’s top 100 for the first time this year, and is now the British number one ranked female player.

"I’m just really excited for it. I'm looking forward to playing and having that experience where loads of people are watching, and how that feels on the table. It will be completely different," she said.

"I’ll try to take it all in. It will be really cool to see how everyone prepares for it and to see all the different athletes up close, and how they deal with things."

The table tennis events will run from 27 July to 10 August at the South Paris Arena within the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.