Anna Hursey

Hursey began playing table tennis at the age of five.^[2][8] In 2017, Hursey, aged 10, competed for Wales in a European Championship qualification match against Kosovo. In doing so, she is believed to be the youngest person to represent Wales at senior level in any sport.^[8][9] In the same year, she competed at the 2017 World Cadet Challenge.^[10] She competed for Wales at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.^[2][8] She was the youngest competitor in Commonwealth Games history.^[7] Hursey was nominated for the 2018 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award, which was won by Kare Adenegan.^[11]

After the 2020 Welsh National Championships, in which Hursey finished second to Charlotte Carey,^[5] she was unable to return to China as the Chinese borders were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4][5] She instead trained in Peterborough, England.^[4] Hursey has been ranked the number one ranked Welsh under-15 woman, and number two ranked Welsh woman of any age.^[4][6] At the 2021 ITTF World Youth Championships, Hursey and Portugal's Matilde Pinto came third in the under-15 girls' doubles event.^[12]

Hursey was selected in the Wales team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games;^[13][14] Hursey and Charlotte Carey came third in the women's doubles event at the Games, the first time that Welsh women had won a Commonwealth Games table tennis medal.^[15] She was part of the Wales team that finished fourth in the women's team competition,^[15] and she lost in the quarter-finals of the women's singles event.^[16]

Hursey was selected for the women's singles event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[17] She went out in the first round to 18th seed Manika Batra from India.^[18]

• Anna Hursey at World Table Tennis (ITTF)
• Anna Hursey at Team GB
• Anna Hursey at Team Wales (archive)
• Anna Hursey at Olympics.com
• Anna Hursey at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
• Anna Hursey at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (archived)
• Official website