Fourth Commonwealth Games call up for umpire Jackie Williams

Jackie Williams has been selected to umpire at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – her fourth appearance at the tournament.

As the only female Blue Badge umpire in the UK, Jackie made her Commonwealth Games debut in Delhi in 2001 – and went on to umpire at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2009 and on the Gold Coast in Australia in 2018.

Add three World Junior Championships, four World Individual Championships, four World Teams’ Championships, the London Paralympic Games, the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi and a multitude of European Opens and you begin to understand why she has so much experience.

And Jackie hopes that her story will inspire more people to take up umpiring in Wales, particularly females to follow her to Blue Badge level.

“It’s an honour to be asked to umpire at my fourth Commonwealth Games,” says Jackie.

“I’ve kept busy during the pandemic, but of course a lot of the tournaments I was meant to go to in the past two years were cancelled.

“It’s great that international championships are returning, and athletes can once again compete for medals at the very highest level.”

Table Tennis Wales is committed to increasing the number of female umpires in the sport so if you are interested in being supported to become an umpire, please contact us on development@tabletennis.wales