FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Hannah Silcock and British Premier League player Jordan Wykes will represent Jersey at Birmingham 2022 after being offered a selection reprieve by Commonwealth Games officials.
The table-tennis duo are the latest to have their names added to Team Jersey’s squad for the quadrennial event following earlier uncertainty over whether Island staff would be able to pick them.
Initial regulations, imposed by Games chiefs, restricted entries to the top-64 ranked players across the Commonwealth.
However, the Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey made a successful appeal and jurisdictions have subsequently been allocated slots, allowing them to select their own participants.
Silcock will compete in the women’s singles while BPL professional Wykes (22) will play in the men’s singles event.
Paul du Feu, CGAJ president, said: ‘We were pleased to get official confirmation through that Hannah and Jordan had been allocated places in the singles events.
‘I’d like to thank everyone involved in local table tennis for their patience while we awaited confirmation, from the organisers, of the exact qualification protocol in this sport.’
Silcock started playing table tennis at the age of seven, when she signed up for the Girls for Gold initiative at the Geoff Read Table Tennis Centre. She is the current British under-15 champion and won three gold medals at the 2021 British and Irish Home Nations International.
Wykes, a gold medallist at the 2019 Island Games in Gibraltar, has played and trained in Sweden, Denmark and France, and is currently based with Archway Table Tennis in Peterborough, under the guidance of former England number one Denis Neale.
Jersey Table Tennis Association president Paul Routier added: ‘Both Jordan and Hannah have been competing at a high level across the UK and Europe and have earned their place in Jersey’s Commonwealth Games team. The Association is really proud of the development of Jersey table tennis in recent years.’
The pair’s inclusion brings the number of athletes selected for Jersey to 18, following earlier nods for Islanders competing in athletics, lawn bowls, cycling, gymnastics, swimming and triathlon. Up to 14 more names are set to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The Games are set to take place between 28 July and 8 August.
