Anna Hursey Vows To Make Good Use Of Impressive Debut Olympic Showing As She Bows Out

By Paul Jones

Anna Hursey believes she can take valuable experience from her Olympic Games debut, despite losing her first round match in Paris.

The 18-year-old Team Wales Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, ranked world number 103, put up a brave fight before losing in five games against world No 28 Manika Batra of India.

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Hursey – the first Welsh athlete to compete for Team GB in table tennis – gave up more than 70 places to Batra in the world rankings, but the gap was barely noticeable.

The teenager found herself 3-0 down, though could easily have been ahead as the margin of each game was close.

She narrowed the gap by taking the fourth in fine style, 11-9, but her opponent – who beat GB’s Tin-Tin Ho at the same stage of the Tokyo Olympics – rallied to complete a 4-1 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5) victory.

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“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,” said Hursey.

“It’s great to go out there and have the experience, how it feels when I’m playing – the crowd, the environment.

“It was quite a close game. She’s had a lot more experience than me, she’s a higher-ranked player, quite an awkward style for me, but I’m pretty happy with how I played.

“All the Indians have quite an awkward style, and even some of the Chinese are struggling with it, so it was quite a tough draw for me. It was close and maybe had I changed something it might have been different.

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

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

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Despite the defeat, it has still been a hugely successful year for Hursey, who qualified for the Games after beating a string of players ranked above her at the qualification tournament in May.

She also won a women’s doubles title at a WTT Feeder event in Manchester and reached her first senior WTT singles final in Doha before winning a major U19 tournament in Slovakia.

Her ranking went from 163 to a high of 93 before dropping to just outside the top 100.

For GB, attention now turns to Liam Pitchford’s opening match against Vicky Wu of Fiji at noon UK time on Monday.

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