Wales plays host to Primary Schools International
Team Event
The historic Primary Schools International Championships came to Wales over the 4th, 5th and 6th of April, hosted at Sport Wales National Centre. The competition provided opportunities for the best primary school boys and girls to represent their country, with teams from Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Guernsey and Jersey travelling into Cardiff to compete for the crown of Britain.
On Friday and Saturday, the team event took place in a cauldron of noise as parents and supporters roared their teams on, none louder than the enthusiastic home nation.
In the boy’s event, England remained undefeated as they saw off tough challenges from Ireland and Wales en route to securing the gold medal. A highlight achievement for the English boys saw them maintain a perfect record in the doubles matches throughout the competition.
The silver medal was tightly contested between Wales and Ireland, with both team’s level on six points heading into their final fixture. The match remained even at 4-4 heading into the last round of matches, with both teams giving it their all. Ireland managed to get both wins to make the match score 6-4 to secure the silver medal. Wales finished with a bronze, which is a great achievement for the team, making this the first time for Wales to medal in the event since 2017, when the competition was last held in Cardiff.
Boys’ teams from Scotland, Jersey and Guernsey finished outside the medal positions, despite competing extremely well in all matches, showing their passion, bravery and team spirit throughout.
In the girl’s event, team England’s performance throughout the competition was outstanding, winning every match on the way to securing the gold medal, a truly remarkable achievement.
The Guernsey girls made history by finishing second and secured a silver medal for the first time in the team event. The team consisting of Thea Cummins, Isla Bretel, Olivia Gilbert and Megan Robinson competed extremely well and fought in some very tough matches to overcome Scotland and Wales.
The Scotland girls were able to compete fiercely to finish third and get the bronze medal. Their closely fought 6-4 win over Wales on Saturday afternoon proved crucial to get themselves onto the podium.
The young Welsh team narrowly missed out on a medal, but showed great bravery, passion and teamwork with signs of great things to come in the coming years.
The young team from Jersey finished in fifth place respectively. All of the girls demonstrated great sportsmanship throughout the whole weekend and competed extremely well.
Singles Event
The singles event took place on Sunday 6th April as players were looking to build on the good performances put in across the team event on Friday and Saturday. The seedings for the singles event were determined by the players’ performances in the team event.
In the boys singles event Jayden Xuan Chen of England, (who was seeded third after a great performance in the team event) finished second in group 3, losing to Andrew Lowe (IRE). He progressed extremely well through some tough knockout matches. In the semi-finals, Jayden Xuan Chen overcame Oliver Harvey (WAL), from 2-1 down (10,-9,-9,7,7) to set up a thrilling encounter against his English teammate SaiSurya Prasanna Kumar in the final. SaiSurya Prasanna Kumar (who was seeded first) faced Luke Evans (GGY) in the semi-final and came out with a thrilling win. In the final, both boys played extremely well, and Jayden Xuan Chen emerged victorious with a 3-1 victory.
In the boy’s consolation event, two tightly contested semi-finals brought the crowd some brilliant matches. Leo Stakim (SCO) vs Toby Young (WAL) was the first semi-final, and Oliver Glowacki (ENG) vs Evan Ness (JEY) was the other. It was Toby Young (4,-5,9,-4,7) and Oliver Glowacki (5,11,8) who managed to win their semi finals and set up a Wales V England final. It was Oliver Glowacki who stormed to a 3-0 victory and a gold medal (10,6,9).
In the girls event, England continued their dominance from the team event, making up three of the four semi-finalists. The first semi-final match-up consisted of Isla Bretel (GGY) and Cindy Xiao (ENG) while the other was between Phoebe O’Brien (ENG) and Mindy Gao (ENG). Cindy Xiao (7,6,2) stormed to a 3-0 victory in her semi-final, whilst the other last-four bout saw Mindy Gao just edge her teammate out in a five set battle (3,-2,9,-9,4) to set up an all English final. In the final it was the top seed Cindy Xiao who grabbed the gold with a 3-0 victory (7,3,7).
In the girls Plate event, the semi-finals were extremely well contested, with players from Wales, Scotland and Guernsey battling it out for a place in the final. In the first, Megan Robinson (GGY) was able to get the better of Chloe Lee (SCO) to get herself a place in the final with a 3-1 victory (5,6,-10,3). The other semi-final saw two Welsh players battle for a place in the final, Pollyanna Protheroe and Sophie Williams. Pollyanna was able to edge her way past Sophie in a tightly fought 3-1 victory (3,11,-5,8). The final between Pollyanna Protheroe (WAL) and Megan Robinson (GGY) was an extremely tight contest that went all the way to the fifth set. It was Pollyanna who managed to get the gold medal on home soil (7,-7,-10,4,7).
