| Sam Walker | |
|---|---|
 Walker in 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Samuel Jake Walker |
| Residence | Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England |
| Born | 7 May 1995 Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England [1] |
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) [1] |
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) [1] |
| Highest ranking | 80 (January 2018) [2] |
Medal record | |
Samuel Jake Walker (born 7 May 1995) is a British table tennis player. [1] [3]
Walker competed for England in the men's team event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games [4] where he won a silver medal. [5]
In March 2016, Walker was part of the England team, alongside Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall, which won bronze medals at the World Team Championships in Malaysia, England's first medal at that level since 1983 and the first time a newly promoted team had earned a podium place at the event. [6]
In June 2016, Walker was called up to the Team GB table tennis squad for the Rio Olympic Games. [7] He featured in the team competition, sealing a 3–2 victory over France in the first round [8] before GB were knocked out by China in the quarter-finals. [9]
In February 2018, Walker was part of the England squad alongside Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford, David McBeath and Tom Jarvis which won bronze medals by reaching the semi-finals of the ITTF Team World Cup in front of a home crowd at the Copper Box Arena in London. [10]
At the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, Walker was part of the England squad which won men's team bronze, alongside Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford and David McBeath. [11] and was fourth in the men's singles, having been defeated in the bronze medal match. [12]
In 2021, Walker became the first English player to win a doubles title on the international circuit since the advent of the ITTF World Tour in 1996, when he and Sweden's Truls Moregard won the men's doubles at the Czech Open. [13]
At the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Walker won team bronze alongside Liam Pitchford, Paul Drinkhall and Tom Jarvis. [14] In 2024, he won a 2nd men's doubles and 6th mixed doubles title at the English National Table Tennis Championships, held at the David Ross Sports Village in Nottingham. [15]
Achanta Sharath Kamal, known as Sharath Kamal, is an Indian professional table tennis player. He is the first Indian table tennis player ever to become ten time Senior National Champion hence breaking the record of eight-time National Champion Kamlesh Mehta. In 2019 he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award and in 2022, he was awarded the Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour.
Yang Zi is a Chinese-born Singaporean former table tennis player.
Paul Andrew Drinkhall is a British table tennis player. He won the English Championship in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017.
Kelly Sibley is a former professional table tennis player and current coach from England. Sibley won the singles, girls doubles and mixed doubles at the UK Junior Championships and has represented England at senior level at the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships.
Gao Ning is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player. He is currently appointed as the Singapore Table Tennis National Coach for men. He is considered Singapore's best male player with a world ranking of 34 as of August 2016. He was first in men's singles at the 2007 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships. In 2018, Gao and Yu Mengyu won the men's singles and mixed doubles at the Commonwealth Games.
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Liam Benjamin Pitchford is an English table tennis player. He is sponsored by Victas.
Soumyajit Ghosh is an Indian table tennis player from Siliguri, West Bengal. He was the youngest Indian player to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He also became the youngest national champion at the age of 19, when he defeated Sharath Kamal in the 74th National Table Tennis Championships.
Joanna Drinkhall is a British table tennis player.
England was represented at the 2010 Commonwealth Games by Commonwealth Games England. The country's abbreviation was ENG, they used the Cross of St George as its flag and "Jerusalem" as its victory anthem. It had previously used "Land of Hope and Glory" as its anthem at the Commonwealth Games, but decided to change following an "internet poll".
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Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016 and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. British athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside Australia, France, Greece, and Switzerland, though Great Britain is the only country to have won at least one gold medal at all of them. The team represented the United Kingdom, the three Crown Dependencies, and the thirteen British Overseas Territories, ten of whom sent representatives.
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Hina Hayata is a Japanese international table tennis player. She is the most successful player on the ITTF Challenge Series since its inception in 2017. Owing to her stature, she is able to generate more spin on both sides than most female players. She is coached by Daisuka Ishida.
Maria Tsaptsinos is an English table tennis player. She competed for England in the Women's Team event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where she won a bronze medal alongside teammates Tin-Tin Ho and Kelly Sibley. Tsaptsinos and Ho also competed in the Women's Doubles, reaching the quarter-finals.
Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which represents the United Kingdom, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Charlotte Carey is a Welsh table tennis player. Her highest career ITTF ranking was 98 in 2018.
England competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham between 28 July and 8 August 2022. Having competed at every Games since their 1930 inauguration, it was England's twenty-second appearance.
The men's doubles competition of the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships was held from 24 to 29 November 2021.
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