by Simon Daish

12 players have been selected for Australia’s table tennis contingent including Melissa Tapper, who represented the country at both the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Melissa Tapper will appear in the Women’s Singles, Women’s Team and Women’s Class 6–10 Singles categories and is honoured to be a member of the Australian line-up travelling to the Gold Coast.

“I was lucky enough to be able to compete for Australia at the Rio Olympics and Paralympics in both the able-bodied and para competitions and I’m going to be doing it again on the Gold Coast in April. We have a very strong team representing Australia in table tennis and I’m lucky to be included in it.” Melissa Tapper

One of Australia’s best performing players at Commonwealth Games level is Jian Fang Lay, who has won a total of seven medals at the event.

Selected to compete at her fifth Commonwealth Games Jian Fang Lay is looking forward to playing in front of the home crowd once again, having donned the green and gold colours 12 years ago when the tournament was last held in the country.

“I’ve been to a few games now and by far and away the best experience was representing Australia on home soil in Melbourne in 2006 and I’m just so grateful that I get to do that again in a few months.” Jian Fang Lay

Feng Chunyi, Miao Miao and Michelle Bromley are the other competitors who have been chosen for the Women’s Singles and Women’s Team competitions while Andrea McDonnell will participate in the Women’s Class 6-10 Singles.

The squad competing in the Men’s Singles and Men’s Team events consists of David Powell, Heming Hu, Chris Yan, Trent Carter and Kane Townsend with Barak Mizrachi representing Australia in the Men’s Class 6-10 Singles category.

Source: Commonwealth Games Australia