Anna Hursey is a Commonwealth Games hit at 11 and vows to ‘get to the top’
The Cardiff youngster won three matches in the Gold Coast competition, two in the team event and one in the singles.
Table tennis prodigy Anna Hursey says playing for Wales in the Commonwealth Games at the age of 11 has increased her ambition to “get to the top”.
Hursey, the youngest athlete competing in the Gold Coast Games, represented Wales in the team event and then in the singles and came away with two doubles wins and one win in the singles.
She helped Wales reach the quarter-finals of the team event, combining with Charlotte Carey to win doubles games against India and Pakistan, before beating Uganda’s Halima Nambozo in her first singles match.
Defeat in her second singles outing against Malaysia’s Li Sian Alice Chang saw her exit the competition at the group stage but her Gold Coast experience has served to fuel her ambition.
“Since I came here, I was like, ‘I wanna win’, but now I’m like, ‘I really wanna win’ because everybody’s supporting me,” Hursey told BBC Sport Wales.
“I really want to get to the top now. It’s been really good, been positive. It’s really good to play for Wales and play good players.”
The Cardiff youngster, who started playing table tennis at the age of five, explained how she took the big crowd experience at the Games opening ceremony in her stride.
“I thought it would be so big. But when I saw it it was like little, I couldn’t even see the people, I only could see little dots. I was like, ‘Oh I can’t see the people, so I just pretended they were like teddy bears’.”
Hursey has had some time to take in a few sights during her time Down Under.
“The (athletes’) village is really nice, seeing other sports, meeting new people. It’s boiling in Australia. We’ve seen koalas and snakes, and we’ve been to the beach, so it’s been really good,” she said.
Hursey even found time to fit in a bit of homework – “I’ve done my German but I haven’t done my history” – and admits she cannot quite understand what all the fuss is about where her age is concerned.
“When I think about it, it’s like, ‘Oh it’s normal’. But when other people think about it… I’m 11,” she said.
