Charlotte Carey may be only 21, but the Welsh No.1 will appear to be a veteran to Commonwealth Games table-tennis debutant Anna Hursey.

Carey will rack up her third Games appearance when she leads the four-strong Welsh team to the Gold Coast in April.

She was 14 when she made her Games debut in 2010, but her record of being the youngest Team Wales member in Manchester will be smashed by Hursey when she travels to Australia at the tender age of 11.

But the Cardiff High School pupil is no ordinary 11-year-old. Having first picked up a bat at the age of five, she competed in her first international tournament in Barcelona at the age of seven and won a silver medal at the International Primary Schools Competition the following year.

She became the Wales Under 18 No.1 by the time she was nine and in August last year she was crowned the Under 11 European Champion. She has spent time training in China and has her talents honed at Cardiff Table Tennis club by Yongbho Zhang and Nathan Thomas.

She told BBC Wales, “I am going – and that’s really good – but hopefully I can show some people that I’m good at this sport and not just going there to have fun.

“At first I was having fun in clubs, but then I got picked for Wales and started playing in competitions and it is a big jump.

“Sometimes I go to the gym and practise hard, and sometimes I miss school for competitions.

“I play about three hours a day after school and sometimes I go out running with my dad, it’s all right once you get used to it.”

Chloe Thomas, who will be heading to her second successive Games, is another graduate from the Commonwealth Youth Games (2008). Joshua Stacey will make his Games debut in the Para-Table Tennis tournament two months after turning 18.

TABLE TENNIS TEAM WALES
Charlotte Carey (Singles / Mixed Doubles / Women’s Doubles)
Anna Hursey
Josh Stacey (Para-Table Tennis)
Chloe Thomas (Singles / Mixed Doubles / Women’s Doubles)