John Murphy is focused on helping Team GB’s Liam Pitchford and Anna Hursey be the best they can be as he prepares for his own second Olympic Games.

The Pathway and Senior Squad Coach was in the corner for the Australia squad at the Tokyo Games, but is looking forward to a whole new experience in Paris after those Games were staged a year later than scheduled and under pandemic-restrictions, which meant no crowds were there to enjoy them.

“That was my first Olympic Games,” says the Irishman, “and as we all know, it was a little bit of a different Games and different feel.

“So, yeah, thoroughly looking forward to getting out to Paris and experiencing what an Olympic Games should be, with crowds and all that.

“What I’m most looking forward to is getting into the matches with both Liam and Anna. I think they’ve both worked extremely hard for a long time, but since I’ve been involved the last 12 months, I’ve witnessed the two of them travelling around the world, playing some amazing matches.

“Being able to qualify as they did was the first goal, and now it’s to get out there and try to help them to perform to their best.”

What does he think they can achieve?

“Anna, it’s a debutant at the Olympic Games, qualifies as a 17-year-old, now 18 – we go with really an experience in mind,” said John.

“But she’s very capable, as we all know, having qualified from the European qualification (tournament), one of the first GB athletes to do so for a number of years, I believe since 1992. So, she’s well capable of playing well and winning some big matches.

“We look always with a little bit of development in mind when we look at Anna because she is so young. But, yeah, everything to play for and well capable of performing well in Paris.

“With Liam, obviously his fourth Games and we know what he’s capable of. He’s beaten some of the world’s top 10 in the last 12 months. He’s coming into really good shape and good form. He’s worked extremely hard on his physical (fitness) in the last six to eight weeks.

“What I’m seeing in practice is really exciting. For him, everything is possible – we know he can beat everyone who’s in the field.”

John was speaking at ‘kitting out’ as he, Team Leader Gavin Evans and the two athletes collected all the Team GB kit they will need on and off the Field of Play in Paris.

John said: “It’s amazing, trying on all the kit and the Games really come to life coming in here today. So it’s really exciting. especially for Anna and Liam.

“Mingling with Team GB staff, trying on the kit, you know, really gives us a feel of how it will be when we’re in Paris and we’re there competing as one team with all the other athletes from all the other sports.”

Apart from the table tennis, there are a couple of sports he will particularly follow and he added: “Being from Ireland, boxing was always a traditionally big sport for the Irish in terms of medals. So yeah, I’ll be following that quite closely from my home country, as well as Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy in the golf, so two sports that I’ll keep a good eye on.”