Commonwealth Games: Oceans, 11, and the Federer of squash

The son of Billy Ocean, an 11-year-old and the Roger Federer of squash are just some of the athletes the Gold Coast.

Welsh table tennis player Anna Hursey is the youngest athlete at the Commonwealth Games at 11.

ANNA HURSEY

TABLE TENNIS

The 11-year-old Hursey is at an age when table tennis should be played in the spare room at home with everyone diving for the ball before it disappears under a piece of furniture. When you do three and over to see who serves first. When long rallies end in a giggling fit.

She’s been playing since she was five, trains in China, has posters of Ariana Grande on her bedroom walls, watches Pretty Little Liars every day and gets a kick out of humiliating adults.

“Sometimes the older girls get really annoyed when they lose to me and kick the barriers and stuff,” she says. “The training is really good but hard. Three sessions a day with morning training, rest, evening training, night-time training. It’s a lot.”

The youngest athlete at the Games is 160cm tall. A table is 76cm. the net is 15.25cm. She’s at an age where she could still be standing on a milk crate.