In February, 14-year-old Welsh table tennis star Anna Hursey (pictured) made international headlines when she was invited to join US President Joe Biden's task force on combating climate change. Now, Hursey is once again making her mark on the world in the realm of international table tennis competition. 2021 marks the debut of World Table Tennis (WTT), a multifaceted reincarnation of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) which includes a new emphasis on youth events. Over the last week, young talent from three continents has gathered in Portugal for the WTT Youth Contender Vila Real. Among the aspirants was the aforementioned Anna Hursey, seeded third in the Under 17 Girls event. Negotiating hurdle after hurdle, Hursey found herself in the title match. "There were many upsets in this competition as a lot of high-level players and high seeded ones went out quite early," described Hursey. "I had a very though match against Mia Griesel at the semi-finals but I managed to go through that." In the final, Hursey faced top-seeded Elena Zaharia of Romania, ranked 10th globally among Under 17 Girls. Although Hursey was seeded third, it was a distant third. Hursey has less than half of Zaharia's world ranking points, 1558 to 3332, giving the Welsh wonder a modest #25 world ranking in the category. Of course, the ball cares little for the statistical background of whomever happens to be striking it. Hursey exploited the egalitarian nature of physics, winning the first two games. In response to such an anomalous result, Zaharia then made a striking demonstration of regression toward the mean, leveling the match and leading 10-8 in the deciding fifth game. Even though all seemed lost for Hursey, she kept her eye on the ball and calmly erased Zaharia's two match points. Momentum in hand, Hursey won two more points to claim her first international title (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 12-10). "I'm very happy that I won," said Hursey. "I was super nervous, but I tried and managed not to show that." Congratulations are certainly in order for Anna Hursey, who now returns her attention to the small matter of saving the world. Hursey may fly the Welsh flag, but we would do well to support the young warrior who is fighting for all of us.

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