The young and the fearless
At the age of 11, table tennis player Anna Hursey is taking her Commonwealth Games debut all in her very short stride.
The youngest competitor at the Gold Coast stepped up to the table with Wales needing to win to stay alive against India.
Partnering Charlotte Carey, Hursey played some big forehands to help the Welsh seal victory 3-2 in their doubles match, but the game was part of the team event, a best-of-five series, which overall Wales lost 3-1.
Watching from the stands, her mother Phoebe, cheered and gave a double thumbs up as her daughter made a stunning Commonwealth Games debut.
Hersey didn’t speak with waiting reporters. A team delegate explained that it was Wales’ official team policy for juniors not to speak to media during competition.
She didn’t really need to. Hursey did her talking on the court and then her coach and doubles partner spoke on her behalf.
Perhaps the only time the ping pong prodigy acts her age is around ice-cream and energy drinks.
‘‘She needs to go to bed earlier than us and we have to stop her from drinking 12 Powerades hanging around in fridges for free,’’ Carey said. ‘‘... that and the free ice-cream in the village.’’ women’s team sprint. This is a team that scraped itself into the world championship. They were 12 of 12 going into that a month ago and came out with fifth place over there.
‘‘We had hoped they could be in contention for a medal here and they’re going for gold. It’s difficult to be more pleased than that.’’