The British Olympic Association has announced today three male and three female athletes as selected to represent Team GB in table tennis competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The group is led by Paul Drinkhall, 22, who recently broke into the world top 100 at senior level, having enjoyed success at junior level, including three European junior titles and a silver medal at the World Junior Championships.
Drinkhall is joined by 18-year-old Liam Pitchford, who won two medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Pitchford demonstrated his potential at the European Championships where he beat four players ranked in the world top 100, including world number 9 nine Vladimir Samsonov and number 20 Alexey Smirnov.
The men’s squad is completed by the experienced Andrew Baggaley, 29, who has won five Commonwealth Games medals and is a three-time English Men’s Singles National Champion.
The women’s team includes English National Champion Joanna Parker, 25. Joining her is Kelly Sibley, who celebrated her 24th birthday yesterday. Sibley is also a national champion and won 10 matches in a row at the 2011 European Championships in Poland to help the women’s team to promotion to the top tier. The team is completed by Na Liu, 29, who is a regular competitor on the ITTF Pro Tour.
Men
Women
The addition of the table tennis players brings the total number of athletes officially selected to Team GB for London 2012 to 107 across nine sport disciplines: table tennis, archery, athletics – marathon, boxing, canoe slalom, hockey, sailing, swimming and synchronised swimming.
The athletes were formally nominated to the BOA for selection to Team GB by the British Table Tennis Federation, the National Governing Body for table tennis in the UK.
Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
Table Tennis Team Leader Jill Parker said:
Men’s Head Performance Coach Jia Yi Liu said:
Women’s Head Performance Coach Alan Cooke said:
Paul Drinkhall said:
Liam Pitchford said:
Andrew Baggaley said:
Joanna Parker said:
Kelly Sibley said:
Athlete Na Liu said: