An 11-year-old Welsh table tennis prodigy was the youngest competitor in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Kate Newton went to see what the fuss was all about.
In some converted sound stages north of Surfers Paradise, sandwiched between two theme parks, a crowd and a press pack were gathering.
They had schlepped there in trams and taxis and trains and buses, hell-bent on witnessing a sweeping narrative unfold.
The drama at Oxenford Studios starred, whether she liked it or not, an 11-year-old called Anna Hursey - a ping-pong prodigy who was representing Wales and being talked up as a potential medal prospect.
Two volunteers overseeing the press benches in one of the table tennis halls were moaning about the journalists as I skulked in.
“She didn’t talk to them of course… They interviewed her teammates and all they asked about was her.”
Who was I there to see, they wanted to know.
I was just there to observe, I said.
It was a lie. I wanted to watch the freaky kid with everyone else, and probably try to interview her coach.
They helpfully explained the order of the six courts in front of us, numbered three through nine.
Where was court two, though, I wondered.
Immediately: “Are you here to see Anna?”
Turned out she was playing her singles match on one of the two show courts, in a completely different hall.
One of the volunteers gave directions, simultaneously adding me to her mental blacklist.
Hursey training with teammate Chloe Thomas Photo: AFP
On show court two, Hursey was in the final stages of her warm-up.
Her long black hair was braided into cornrows to keep it out of her face and she was missing a baby tooth.
Hursey’s opponent was Halima Nambozo of Uganda, who was quickly down 0-2 after returning the ball too long.
“Go on Anna!” a Welsh accent shouted from the crowd.
Nambozo eked one point back before losing serve again. Twenty seconds later the score was 6-2 to Hursey, who was firing unplayable cross-court shots across the table.
Hursey won the first game 11-5. Nambozo stood to the side of the table, nonplussed, while her opponent grabbed a towel from an official and chugged some water as coach Stephen Jenkins gave her a few words of advice.
Hursey went up 4-nil in about a minute in the second game.
The match official, a middle-aged woman with glasses and a short bob, gestured to Hursey’s end of the table to indicate point after point after point.
Down 2-10, Nambozo clawed back a couple of points before Hursey smashed home the winning shot. 11-4.
“Attacking, aggressive,” Jenkins described her style of play later.
“She needs to gain a little bit more power but with her age that’ll come in time.”
Anna Hursey is congratulated by coach Stephen Jenkins Photo: AFP
The third game began more evenly, with Nambozo keeping it to 3-3 in the opening minute.
But as Hursey went up 6-3, the Ugandan clasped her mouth in frustration. She fell 11-5, and then 11-4 in the fourth and final game - Hursey winning the best-of-seven match in straight sets.
Her rout of Nambozo had taken 17 minutes.
A few metres away on show court one, a closely-fought match between Brian Ndunda Mutua of Kenya and Kristian Doughty of Barbados was still unfolding, but people began shuffling out of their seats.
Under the grandstand, 12-year-old Jean was wise to the thinning crowd.
“Everyone was leaving after she finished.”
Watching someone her own age beat the pants off a grown-up was “pretty cool”; also, it sounded like the Welsh crowd was calling Hursey a goanna when they cheered for her.
“That’s a big lizard here,” Jean said.
Hursey trains with teammates Chloe Thomas (left) and Charlotte Carey (right) ahead of the Commonwealth Games Photo: AFP
Nambozo was first to come past the waiting press. What did she think of her opponent?
“I don’t know what to think… It was a good match.”
Hursey signed an autograph for a girl her own age on her way out and then strode straight past, chaperoned by an official side-eyeing anyone who looked like they might try to ask a question.
Stephen Jenkins, though, was as obliging as everyone else was hostile.
He believed Hursey was thoroughly enjoying the hoopla her presence had created.
“Anna herself is saying to me she’s not nervous, which baffles me cos I’m like, surely you’re a little bit nervous?
“I think she’s struggled in the past if nobody claps for her. Some people see that as pressure but … Anna just feeds off the crowd.”
He thought through the relative strengths of her shots out loud.
“Forehand’s spinny, backhand’s more powerful. Serve is excellent … but backhand I’d say is the key.
“That’s the big shot, and that’s the big shot in the women’s game itself. The top Chinese have amazing backhands so that’s what Anna’s trying to achieve.”
He was packing her off to the training hall next, ahead of her next pool match.
“It’s a defender tonight so it’s a different style, so I’ve set up some practice against a defender now ... and hopefully we can go into tonight with a good chance of winning.”
Hursey with coach Stephen Jenkins Photo: AFP
I wanted to stick around but some New Zealanders were in the swimming finals on the other side of town.
They didn’t win, and nor did Hursey.
Li Sian Alice Chang of Malaysia beat her four games to zilch, knocking her out of the tournament and simultaneously batting away the grand story arc we’d all been crafting.
Manika Batri of India won the gold a few days later, but interest had already dribbled away, like a ping-pong ball rolling into the corner of someone’s garage to gather dust.
12-year-old Jean, Hursey’s contemporary, had been impressed though.
“Strange to see someone so young be so accomplished at something,” she said.
She’d nailed the real narrative. It was strange, it was pretty cool, and the crowd really had sounded like they were shouting, “Goanna!”
Main image: Adrian Dennis (AFP)
