Table tennis star battles to get to world games

WELSH international table tennis player Chloe Thomas arrived at Heathrow yesterday four hours before her 7.30am flight to Germany for the World Table Tennis Championships.

There were queues everywhere, she said, and her plane to Düsseldorf was cancelled at the last minute.

She said: “We stood in the check-in queue, not moving, for about an hour, then it came up on the screen that the flight was cancelled. I wasn’t surprised. We didn’t think we would make the flight because we were in the queue for such a long time.”

The group then joined another queue “the length of the airport” to make a rebooking.

Ms Thomas said: “There was no one to help, no leadership, it was just mental. There were lots of people everywhere. There was nowhere to sit, so people were just lying on the floor, sleeping on yoga mats.”

Airport staff handed out mats and blankets to those stranded overnight after Saturday’s chaos. Ms Thomas said one shop had already sold out of food.

She and team-mates Callum Evans and Daniel O’connell eventually managed to book on to another flight but had to travel to Birmingham last night to catch their plane.