Kelly Sibley

Kelly Sibley

Kelly Sibley at the Pro B French Championships in 2006
Personal information
Nationality  England
Residence Sheffield
Born (1988-05-21) 21 May 1988
Leamington Spa, England
Playing style Right Hand Attacking Shakehand
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)

Kelly Sibley (born 21 May 1988) is a professional table tennis player from England. She started playing the sport at her local club in Lillington, Leamington Spa. 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. She is currently the highest ranked senior woman in English table tennis [1] and 166th in the world.[2] She is sponsored by local firms Wright Hassell,[3] Building and Plumbing Supplies and, in 2011, sports betting community site OLBG.com.[4]

Kelly began playing table tennis aged 8 years old at Lillington Free Church table tennis club, inspired by her mother Lynn Bolitho, a former county-level table tennis player.[5]

In 2000, she represented England at the English Schools Championships.[6]

At the age of 13, she was invited to live and train at the National Training centre in Nottingham where she was coached by Alan Cooke[6] before relocating to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield [7]

Kelly represented England at the Commonwealth Games three times; once in Melbourne, Australia (2006) and again in Delhi, India (2010) where she finished in fourth place in the team women's event. At Glasgow 2014, she won her first Commonwealth Games medal when she took bronze in the mixed doubles alongside Danny Reed.[8]

She also gained a Ladies Doubles Bronze Medal at the 2009 Commonwealth Championships, a team silver at the 2013 Commonwealth Championships[9] and a Division Two Gold Medal at the 2008 World Team Championships in China.[10]

Kelly won 10 consecutive international matches at the 2011 European Championships in Poland and promoted the England Women’s team to the top tier.

Funding cuts threatened her chance to compete at the London 2012 Olympics[6] [11] until her plight was aired on BBC radio and responded to by OLBG.com. It was announced on 30 May 2012 that Sibley would be representing her country at the games[12] where she competed in the team event, losing to North Korea in the opening round.

Kelly has won national singles titles at Cadet, Junior, U21 and Senior level, girls’ doubles titles at U12, Cadet and Junior levels, women’s doubles at Senior level and mixed doubles at Junior and Senior Levels.[13] She is the reigning women's singles national champion (March 2015).[14]

In June 2015 she was part of the Great Britain table tennis squad which competed at the inaugural European Games in Baku.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Rankings — The English Table Tennis Association". Etta.co.uk.
  2. ↑ http://www.ittf.com/ittf_ranking/
  3. ↑ "News - Kelly Sibley". Wright Hassall. 23 September 2010.
  4. ↑ http://www.olbg.com/about/OLBG%20Keep%20Olympic%20Prospect%27s%20Dream%20Alive.pdf
  5. ↑ "Kelly Sibley - Team GB - London 2012 Olympics". Telegraph.
  6. 1 2 3 Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011 12:00 (10 August 2011). "Leamington's table tennis star gears up for Olympic dream - Local". Warwick Courier.
  7. ↑ "Personal Profile". Kellysibley.com.
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth-games/28622748
  9. ↑ http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/girls-earn-silver-in-commonwealths/
  10. ↑ http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/sport/table-tennis-star-kelly-wins-gold-1-1057143
  11. ↑ "BBC Sport - Table Tennis - Table tennis star Kelly Sibley fears for Olympic dream". BBC News. 1 December 2010.
  12. ↑ http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/coventry-warwickshire-sport/other-sport/2012/05/23/olympics-kelly-sibley-named-in-gb-table-tennis-team-92746-31028386/
  13. ↑ http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/competitions/competitions-information/national-championships/
  14. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/table-tennis/31703120
  15. ↑ http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/sibley-to-face-lithuanian-challenge-in-first-round/
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