BBC Wales at the Olympics

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Team GB’s Anna Hursey is out of the women's singles table tennis after she was beaten 4-1 by India’s Manika Batra in the first round.

The 18-year-old, the first Welsh table tennis player to appear at an Olympics, trailed 3-0 before pulling a game back, but ultimately slipped to defeat against 18th seed Batra.

“Of course I feel a bit disappointed but I think it was a really good experience to go out there and play,” Hursey said.

“The game was difficult and the scores were quite close. It was quite an awkward game for me but I think I handled it quite well.

“It was close and maybe had I changed something it might have been different.

“I think I gave it everything. It feels great to be an Olympian and I hope there will be many more."

Hursey, from Carmarthen, added: “Obviously, I’m really proud to be Welsh and it’s great to play for Great Britain out there and I know everyone was behind me.”

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Welsh teenager Ruby Evans started her first Olympics in the artistic gymnastics qualification event on Sunday morning.

After subdivision 2 finished competing, 17-year-old Evans failed to qualify for any individual apparatus finals, but Team GB overall are in fourth place.

If Team GB remain in the top eight, Evans and her team-mates could qualify for the women’s team event on Tuesday evening.

Evans is currently 17th in the all-around standings, where the top 24 gymnasts qualify for the final.

However Team GB’s Georgia-Mae Fenton and Alice Kinsella are ranked higher than Evans and a maximum of two athletes per nation can go through to the final.

Evans and Team GB will have to wait until Sunday evening to see the final standings.

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Welsh boxer Rosie Eccles is out of the women’s 66kg after a surprise split-decision loss to Poland’s Aneta Rygielska.

Eccles was on the front foot throughout the three-round bout but after edging the first on the judges' scorecards, she was deemed to be second best to Rygielska in the next two.

The Pole was deducted a point late in the third round for failing to keep her head up but, despite that, both judges who scored the fight even at 28-28 called it in favour of Rygielska.

Only one judge actually had Rygielska ahead on the scores, 29-27, while two gave it to Eccles, 30-26 and 29-27.

"I'm genuinely shocked, I'm stunned. That was a brutal outcome," said BBC boxing pundit Steve Bunce.

"We've got independent judges here. They went with the one who got deducted a point and she actually fouled. The two judges who had it even voted for the woman who had an infringement. I'm really annoyed. It's a bad decision."

Eccles won gold for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 in the women’s over 66kg-70kg (light middleweight) category.

In rowing, Team GB's men’s four, including Wales' Matt Aldridge, have qualified for their final, which takes place on Thursday morning.

The quartet finished second in their heat, with the first two in each heat qualifying for the final.

Aldridge is Welsh-qualified through his grandmother.

Welsh rower Ollie Wynne-Griffiths is safely through to the semi-finals of the men's pair alongside partner Tom George.

Having won their heat, the Team GB duo can look ahead to Wednesday morning's semi-finals in confident mood.

Matt Richards has put the disappointment of the men's 4x100m relay to one side by easing into the semi-finals of men's 200m freestyle.

Richards was part of the team which could only manage a fifth-place finish in Saturday's relay final.

But the Welshman was straight back in the pool on Sunday morning, booking a place in this evening's semi-finals courtesy of a second-place finish in his heat.

"I’ve got the job done there. I’m very happy with that result," he told BBC TV.

"We’re safely through to the semi later and we’ll see how we do again tonight.

"I was just racing the race, doing what I needed to do this morning. I’ve got a heavy schedule this week so it’s all about trying to manage that load across the week. I’d be lying if I said it was easy but I’m happy with the result."

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It is set to be a special day at the Olympics for three Welsh women.

Anna Hursey, Jasmine Joyce-Butchers and Ella Maclean-Howell all start their 2024 Games in France on Sunday, with each making significant landmarks.

Table tennis player Hursey, 18, takes on India's Manika Batra in the women's singles round of 64 from 12:00 BST.

In doing so, Carmarthen's Hursey will become the first Welsh table tennis player to play at an Olympics.

Rugby star Joyce-Butchers - previously Joyce - will become the first British rugby player to feature at three Olympic Games when Team GB take on Ireland at Stade de France at 14:30 BST.

The wing is bidding to make it third time lucky by clinching a medal this summer having finished fourth with Great Britain at in the last two Games.

Like Hursey, Maclean-Howell is making her Olympic bow this summer, in addition to writing her name into the record books.

The 19-year-old, from Llantrisant, is the first Welsh mountain biker to go to an Olympics and begins her quest for glory in the women's cross country MTB at Elancourt Hill from 13:10 BST.

Matt Richards’ first appearance of the Paris Olympics ended in disappointment as Great Britain finished fifth in the men’s 4x100m relay final.

Richards came in for the final and swam the first leg in 47.83. Jacob Whittle, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott followed but GB finished just under a second off the podium. The race was won by USA, with Australia and Italy completing the podium.

"Obviously it's frustrating - we really wanted to try and get in there and go after the medals," Richards told BBC Sport.

"So it's tough to be on the wrong side of it but I think we all put in a great effort. We couldn't have asked for much more."

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Josh Tarling missed out on a medal at the cycling men’s time trials, finishing fourth overall.

Aberaeron's Tarling, 20, was forced to change to a new bike after sustaining a front wheel puncture at the beginning of his race, losing around 15 seconds.

Despite a fine recovery, Tarling finished 2.16 seconds adrift of Wout van Aert who clinched bronze, with the Belgian's compatriot Remco Evenepoel taking gold and Italy's Filippo Ganna earning silver.

"The stars were miles apart today [they did not align]," Tarling told BBC One.

"It was a front puncture near the rim, I had no choice really but to make the change before that corner and then try my best."

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Welshmen Tom Barras and Graeme Thomas, alongside Callum Dixon and Matthew Haywood, have secured their place in the final of the men's quadruple sculls.

The quartet finished second in the first heat with a time of 5:44.82, 3.13 seconds behind the Netherlands.

The final gets underway at 11:02 BST on Wednesday, 31 July.

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Team GB have qualified for the Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay final.

Great Britain secured a time of 3:12.49 to finish second, behind China, in the opening heat.

Welshman Matt Richards did not feature in this morning's line up, although he is expected to be in the team for tonight's final (20:44 BST).

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Rebecca Wilde and Mathlida Hodgkins Byrne have qualified for the semi-final of the women’s double sculls.

The duo set a time of 6:52.31 to finish second behind New Zealand in the opening heat and book their place in the semi-finals.

The semi-finals take place on Tuesday, 30 July from 09:50 BST.

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Swimmer Kieran Bird has failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 400m freestyle.

Bird, 24, finished fifth in his heat with a time of three minutes and 47.54 seconds, 3.41 seconds behind German Lukas Märtens who finished first.

With only the fastest eight from this morning's five heats reaching tonight's final, Bird has not progressed.

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Gareth Furlong likes to score from penalty corners and he did just that - twice - on his Olympics debut in Great Britain’s 4-0 pool A win over Spain.

Thanks to his powerful drag flicks, he has scored more than 75 international goals for Wales and has now made his mark with a brace for GB on the biggest stage.

Fellow Welshman Rupert Shipperly also got on the scoresheet with a late goal in a clinical GB performance.

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Before Tokyo, everything Jade Jones touched at an Olympics turned to gold.

She became Olympic champion as a teenager at London 2012, before winning gold again at Rio 2016.

Gold in Tokyo would have ensured she became Wales' greatest female Olympian and the most successful Olympic taekwondo athlete in history, so it was a seismic shock when she lost in the first round of competition to Refugee Team competitor Kimia Alizadeh.

There was another shock just weeks before this Olympic Games, as the UK Anti-Doping Agency ruled Jones was clear to compete in Paris after provisionally suspending her for failing to provide a urine sample in December 2023.

The 31-year-old successfully argued against the ban after presenting confidential medical records which UKAD concluded showed she bore "no fault or negligence".

The women's -57kg category takes place all in one day, as usual, with Jones hoping to reach the final at 20:39 BST on Thursday, 8 August.

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You may have been aware of table tennis player Anna Hursey for some time.

Back in 2018 she made headlines around the world when she was selected by Team Wales for the Commonwealth Games at just 11 years old.

She went to the next Commonwealths in Birmingham as a 16-year-old and won an historic bronze medal alongside Charlotte Carey in the women's doubles.

Still only 18, Hursey is used to rewriting the history books, and she will do so again this summer as she becomes the first Welsh table tennis player to go to an Olympics.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I feel this is just the beginning of my career and hopefully I can go to many more Olympics."

The table tennis competition begins on Saturday, 27 July, when Wales will have an Olympic table tennis player for the first time.

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Matt Richards has already written his name into Welsh Olympic history.

His gold medal in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay in Tokyo - at 18 years and 223 days old - saw him become the nation's youngest Olympic champion.

Alongside Calum Jarvis, who was also in that team, Richards claimed Wales' first Olympic swimming gold since Irene Steer in 1912.

But after Richards, now 21, became world champion in the 200m freestyle last year, attention turns to what he can achieve in the individual events too.

At the trials he secured his spot in three events - the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyles - with potentially three more relays to come.

Bear in mind Wales's greatest Olympian - swimmer and water polo player Paulo Radmilovic - has four gold medals. This really could be another historic summer for Richards.

"I'm in the shape of my life," he said.

"Coming off the back of becoming world champion individually last year, that fills me with a lot of confidence. But it's going to be very, very hard. So I will take each race as it comes and enjoy it."

Richards could race 12 times in just over a week, but look out for GB's defence of the men's 4x200m freestyle relay on Tuesday, 30 July (20:59 BST).

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Hector Pardoe has perhaps been more concerned about the water quality of the Seine than most.

The marathon swimmer is back for his second Games and, if the water quality allows, he will get to take part in what should be an iconic event in the centre of Paris.

He will start with high hopes, too, after winning bronze at this year's World Championships.

Last year he set a new world record for the fastest swim across Lake Windermere - but marathon swimming can be a brutal event at times.

You may remember the photo of the cut around Wrexham-born Pardoe's eye after he was hit by a rogue elbow in Tokyo.

It ultimately ended his Olympic experience last time, but don't rule him out if he can stay out of trouble in Paris.

"I was hungry as a 20-year-old going into Tokyo. But after receiving that [injury] and having that Olympic dream cut short, it's really pushed me to new levels of motivation and discipline," he said.

The men's marathon swimming event takes place at 06:30 BST on Friday, 9 August.

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The Paris Games will be a second Olympics for Britain's undisputed best 1500m swimmer of the last decade, Dan Jervis.

The Resolven product has won medals for Team Wales at the Commonwealth Games - though was cruelly denied a chance to swim for an elusive gold at Birmingham 2022 after contracting Covid-19 close to the event.

He says he struggled with motivation in the aftermath of that disappointment but always felt he had one more Olympics in him. He has been proved right.

"It was a lot harder to get to this Olympics. To get on that podium would be an absolute dream," he said.

The men's 1500m freestyle takes place over the middle weekend of the Olympics, with the final at 17:36 BST on Sunday, 4 August.

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In the three years since Tokyo, Medi Harris has very quickly established herself on the GB swimming team.

She won bronze for Team Wales as a teenager at the 2022 Commonwealth Games before becoming European champion with the GB women's 4x100m freestyle team later that summer.

The 21-year-old, from Porthmadog, picked up silver and bronze at this year's World Championships, but soon afterwards her mum, Ellie, sadly passed away.

Medi had to complete at the Olympic trials within weeks.

She did so admirably and her spot at her first Olympics was secured in the most difficult of circumstances.

"It feels a bit surreal," Harris said. "It's been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. With each competition and each team I make, I'm just learning more and more. I know my mum was proud of me no matter what I did."

Harris' Olympic debut should come on Monday, 29 July in the women's 100m backstroke, with relays likely to follow later in that first week - including the women's 4x200m freestyle.