Williams on a Pathway to promotion

Talented Welsh teenager Grace Williams is being promoted from the British Para Table Tennis Team’s Pathway Squad to Confirmation, the transition programme between Pathway to Performance.

Although still under the guidance of Pathway manager Shaun Marples and Pathway coach Matjaz Sercer, the 19-year-old from Wrexham will receive a UK Sport Athlete Performance Award (APA) and will have all the benefits of a Performance athlete with access to the English Institute of Sport support services including physio, strength and conditioning, lifestyle management and analysis.

Williams has come a long way since she first started playing at the age of 12 during a disability sports day.

Although not previously interested in sport she fell in love with table tennis and from playing once a week at her local club she graduated to the BPTT Pathway Squad in 2019, making her international debut in the Dutch Open that same year.

“Sport hadn’t appealed to me before,” she explained, “probably because when I was in primary school and year seven it was always netball, and I couldn’t throw a ball as well as everyone else and so I felt like an outsider. With table tennis I felt that I could do it and if I worked hard I could get better.”

In September last year Williams moved to Sheffield where she now combines studying nutrition at university with training with the BPTT Performance Squad at the EIS.

“I’ve definitely grown as a player and a person since I moved to Sheffield,” she said. “I’ve learned different aspects of my game and ways to help my game. I’ve also learned how to balance life – training, social life and university.

“Training with the squad gives me motivation because when I watch Ross (Wilson) or Will (Bayley) or Fliss (Pickard) it helps me in that situation because I want to be where they are. They put 110% effort into every training session and that motivates me to do the same.”