Anna Hursey and Liam Pitchford are officially heading to the Paris Olympic Games!

Both were confirmed as part of Team GB today, and it is a historic moment for both athletes as they compete in their respective singles competitions.

Pitchford, who qualifies by virtue of his world ranking, will be attending his fourth Games – the first GB table tennis athlete to achieve that feat.

Hursey, who turned 18 last month, had secured her place via the European Singles Qualification Tournament in Sarajevo in May.

She is the first Welsh table tennis athlete to compete at the Olympic Games and will be a year younger than Pitchford was when he took his place at his first Games at London 2012.

Hursey is also only the third female GB athlete to seal a place through the continental qualifying tournament and the first since 1992, when Lisa Lomas and Alison Gordon did so to earn their places at the Barcelona Games.

The teenager said: “I’m just really, really excited for it. I’m looking forward to playing – having that experience of loads of people watching and how it feels to be on the table will be a completely different experience.

“I’ll try to take in the whole experience. I think it will be really cool to see how everyone prepares for it and to see all the different athletes, how they are and how they deal with things.”

Pitchford helped Great Britain to reach the team quarter-finals at Rio 2016, where they lost to the all-conquering China, and has a best singles performance of reaching the last 32 in both Rio and Tokyo.

He has been out of action recently with a shoulder injury but is now back in full training and said it was “a bit of a relief” to have his qualification confirmed.

He said: “I kind of knew I’d done enough to get in on the ranking a while ago, but obviously you never know, things can change, and with my shoulder it was a bit of a wait. I’d like to have got it done a bit earlier.

“I’m really happy, it’s going to be my fourth Games. I’ve been getting my shoulder back to 100%, doing my rehab and getting in good shape. I’ve been back on the table a couple of weeks now and feeling good, so it’s going to be straight out there and ready to go.”

The team announcement was made on the day Pitchford and Hursey attended ‘kitting out’, where athletes collect all the items of bespoke competition and leisure clothing they will wear during Games time.

Also there were coach John Murphy and Team Leader Gavin Evans, who will both be part of the Team GB delegation. David McBeath will travel to France as a sparring partner, while physio Justin Lucas-Hill will be working with the athletes at the prep camp in France later this month.

The opening ceremony of the Games is on July 26 and the table tennis competitions get under way the following day, with the early stages of the men’s and women’s singles and the mixed doubles.

The medal matches are on August 3 and 4, and the team events start on August 5.