SPORTING PRODIGY ANNA’S NEW CHINA LIFE
SHE is the youngest athlete ever to compete in the Commonwealth Games at senior level – representing Wales at the Gold Coast 2018 when she was just 11.
Now former Cardiff schoolgirl Anna Hursey has moved to China to work with elite table tennis coaches and train with top players.
It’s a dramatic lifestyle change for the former Cardiff High pupil, who started off her sport in the humble surroundings of Swansea’s Penlan leisure centre.
Her goal is to win a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and ultimately become the world’s number-one female player.
Four months after moving from Cardiff to the city of Tianjin,near Beijing, with her Chinese-born mother, Phoebe, the 13-year-old table tennis star is training six hours a day on top of schoolwork.
She said she is loving her new life, but misses friends back in Cardiff and stepbrother Tiankun Wei, 26, who is home in Wales doing post- graduate study.
“China is good. It’s the best country for table tennis and that’s why it is so hard too – the competition here is harder,” she said.
“I get up at 9am, study until 12pm online and then do six hours of training.
“Obviously most of my friends and family are back home but my teammates are here and it is worth it to move. It’s good here and the city is much more modern.
“Because my mum grew up in China I have lots of family here, but not where I am.
“It’s a really nice place but it is hard to move and I miss my friends and house in Cardiff.”
But leaving all this behind is worth it for Carmarthen-born Anna, who said training with the best coaches in China will help her fulfil her dream of a medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on her way to another medal at the 2024 Olympics.
Anna trains with elite coach Liu Xun at the Olympic Centre in Tianjin.
The massive city, the fourth biggest in China, is home to more than 12 million people.
Known by her Chinese name Zhang Anna in her new home, the young table tennis player has appeared on television in China several times.
She will be back in Cardiff at the end of February for the National Championships, and soon after that her father, Laurence, who works in the criminal justice system in Cardiff, is moving out to join her and Phoebe in what will be a permanent move for the family.
Although her sport is her main focus, Anna is also busy making new friends.
She said: “China is weird and different, but good. It’s a really nice place.
I’m really lucky to be here. I’m training with 15- to 20-year-old boys and couldn’t train like this in Wales.
“When I’m not table tennis training I like going out with friends to movies and sleepovers and shopping.
“Chinese food is really good too. My favourite is duck.”
Anna, who left Cardiff High at the end of Year 8, is keeping up with her schoolwork thanks to Abergavennybased online school, InterHigh.
She studies geography, history, maths, English and German three hours a day, and although she already speaks fluent Mandarin Anna is practising reading and writing the language, too.
She learned Mandarin from Phoebe, or Zhang Xiuli in Chinese, who met Laurence when he was teaching English in China.
The family have kept close ties with the country and its culture, which has made it easier for Anna to adjust.
But Anna’s father said it was still a big decision to move.
“The decision had to be Anna’s,” he said.
“We are proud of her. She’s doing really well and could never have the level of training she is getting here back in Europe.
“But it is a sacrifice for her. It is hard for her to come to China but she wanted to come.
“The sacrifice is that she misses her friends and Cardiff.
“It’s hard for her but she’s happy and enjoying it and wants to reach her goals and get better at the game.
“We have been used to adjusting to different countries and cultures as a family and we are happy as long as we’re together.
“I’m here in China for a couple of weeks but will be moving out here permanently in April.”