International Primary School Championships 2022
Silver and Bronze for Wales in Guernsey
Lily Elliott brought home the silver medal in the Girls Singles while the Welsh team won bronze.
Over the weekend Wales was represented by Amelie David (Rhondda TTC) and Lilly Elliott (Ael y Bryn TTC), who were taking part in the girls singles and girls team event at the International Primary School Championships in Guernsey. The team event was played over Friday evening and Saturday. Where the Girls were joined by Chantelle Leather of England and Esther Lewis of Jersey to make up the team of 4. While the singles event took place on Sunday.
Friday Evening saw the start of the team event where Wales got off to a flying start with a 10-0 victory over Jersey. The form continued on Saturday morning, where Amelie and Lily both won their individual matches and teaming up to win the doubles, as the team completed a 9-1 win over hosts Guernsey.
Wales first defeat of the weekend came on Saturday afternoon with a narrow 6-4 loss in a high quality battle with Scotland. The final match in the team event was against England on Saturday evening which resulted in a 7-3 win for England but there was many positives to take after our Welsh players won 3 out 4 of their matches (Lily winning 2 out of 2 and Amelie winning 1 out of 2).
With 2 wins and 2 losses for the team, the girls came home with a bronze medal. Individually the girls can be proud of themselves in the team event, with Lily winning 7 out 8 matches and Amelie winning 6 out of 8.
The seedings for the singles event are determined by the players performances in the team event, which meant Lily was seeded 2nd and Amelie 3rd. Both got off to a great start in their groups winning 2 out 3 matches and both progressing to the last 16.
In the last 16 both Welsh girls won 3-0 with Amelie beating Chantelle Leather (ENG) and Lily beating Kiishi Adekola (SCO) to progress to the Quarter Finals. Lily was up against Alyssa Nguyen (ENG), who had beaten Lily in the group stage but this time the result was different with a fighting display Lily came out on top winning 3-2. For Amelie the quarter final saw her play the top seed Nicola Lee (SCO), who hadn’t lost a match all weekend. Unfortunately for Amelie it was Nicola who came out on top of 3 close sets to take the match 3-0.
With no time to rest the semi final was called, Lily vs Nikki Mo(SCO). Lily played some great table tennis to win 3-0 and progress to the final. The final was against Hannah Saunders(ENG) who managed to edge out Lily 3-1 in a closely faught match. Lily brought home the silver medal to add to the bronze she won in the team event.
National Coach Stephen Jenkins had this to say: “I’m really proud of the girls for their performance and effort. To come away with 2 medals from 2 events is a great achievement. We are now looking forward to getting back into the hall and working towards a bright future for them both”.