King in medals at School Games

Yolanda King bagged two medals at the Sainsbury’s UK School Games in Sheffield last weekend.

The table tennis prospect from Hastings won gold in the girls’ singles competition and bronze in the team event at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

King topped her singles group with ease, but then, suffering from sudden nerves, was very fortunate to survive the first two rounds of the knockout.

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She then pulled off an 11-7, 11-5, 3-11, 11-4 success in the semi-finals against top seed Emily Bates (unbeaten at that stage in the whole Games), who she had lost to in last year’s final.

King was mostly in control of the final against SE team colleague and England no.2, Tin Tin Ho, coming through 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 11-4.

In the team event, the South East won 4-3 against the North East, lost 4-3 to the Midlands and beat Scotland 7-0. King claimed wins over England no.6, Chloe Whyte (Cleveland), and England no.5 Abbie Milwain (Derbyshire).

In the semi-finals against Wales, King fairly comfortably beat the Welsh no.3, Megan Phillips, but played quite poorly to lose 11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 8-11 to Welsh no.1 Charlotte Carey as the SE went down 4-2.

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After winning her first singles in the third place play-off against the Midlands, King stormed into a two-game lead against Bates before seizing up and eventually losing 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 13-11. But the SE secured a 4-3 victory.

The full article will appear in Friday’s Hastings Observer.