Stourbridge table tennis star Charlotte Bardsley relished a once in a lifetime experience after her Commonwealth Games came to an end.
Alongside Emily Bolton, Bardsley lost 3-0 to strong Singaporean pair Tianwei Feng and Jian Zeng in the last 16 of the women’s doubles.
Bardsley revealed she will take plenty of lessons from her time in Birmingham playing in front of a boisterous home crowd that was nothing like she’d ever seen before.
She said: “It was a really difficult match but we gave it our best. They were on a different level to us, so it was hard.
“I think I’ve definitely learnt a lot and being able to perform in front of the big crowd and in really crucial moments has really helped me and hopefully I can do that again in future competitions.
“I was taken aback at how much support we had. I didn’t really know what was going to happen and I didn’t really know what was going to happen but it was a great feeling.
“It’s really special to compete in my home city because I’ll probably never get this opportunity again in my lifetime. It has been fantastic to play with all my friends and my family watching me.”
This summer, Team England, supported by funding raised by National Lottery players, comprises of over 400 athletes, all vying for medal success.
While success eluded her in the women’s doubles, Bardsley will remember fondly her decisive role in ensuring the women’s team made the quarter-finals.
After being pegged back by Nigeria in a thrilling decisive group-stage encounter, it came down to the very final game with the scores locked at 9-9 before the 20-year-old prevailed.
England went on to lose to Wales but Bardsley was also proud of her achievements in the mixed doubles alongside Tom Jarvis where they beat Singapore's Yew En Koen Pang and Xin Ru Wong to make the last eight.
She said: “I think the highlight definitely was winning the deciding match against Nigeria.
“Also getting to the quarter-final of the mixed doubles with Tom and beating the No.2 seeds from Singapore was a really good thing.”
Bardsley’s partner Bolton was the last England player to take to the table following her late call-up and bemoaned the duo’s tough draw against experienced opponents.
She said: “Obviously they are a really good pair. They’ve probably played together for a long time and it was really difficult.
“It is what it is and that’s just the way the draw is sometimes. We tried our best to put our game onto them but they are strong and they had an answer to everything we threw at them.
“I’ve really enjoyed the Games. It has been a really nice atmosphere every day watching matches on the bench with the girls or in the stands.
“Being chucked in last minute was a little bit of a surprise, but it’s been a really enjoyable experience. Hopefully in four years’ time I might still be around and I can build from here and improve my game further.”
National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes.
With the day's results, BOOM Esports, Entity, and Outsiders have guaranteed themselves at least a Top 8 finish. How did the others fare?
Makayla Cox, a high school student in the US state of Virginia, thought she was taking medication that her friend had procured to treat pain and anxiety.
Kenyans on Wednesday were waiting for the results of the country's presidential election after a largely peaceful poll, with preliminary results on television suggesting a tight race as low turnout pointed to growing frustration with the political elite.
The beluga whale stranded in the river Seine in northern France was removed from the water early Wednesday in the first stage of an ambitious rescue operation, an AFP journalist said.
Director Advait Chandan is too literal in his adaptation of the 90s classic but finds a warmth and political honesty the original lacks Aamir Khan turns Gump in Laal Singh Chadda. Photograph: Paramount Pictures
An ailing beluga whale that strayed into France's Seine river was put down by vets Wednesday after a last-ditch rescue attempt failed because of its rapidly deteriorating health, local officials said.
Decomposing food waste is releasing thousands of tonnes of planet-warming methane gas at landfills in Buenos Aires, Delhi, Mumbai, and Lahore, new research finds. With about 570 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas emitted every year from both industrial and natural processes, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has been increasing at a record pace https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/increase-in-atmospheric-methane-set-another-record-during-2021#:~:text=NOAA's%20preliminary%20analysis%20showed%20the,during%202020%20was%2015.3%20ppb, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Yet there is another major global source – garbage.
An ailing beluga whale that strayed into France's Seine river was put down by vets Wednesday after a last-ditch rescue attempt failed because of its rapidly deteriorating health, local officials said. The fate of the whale captured the hearts of people across the world since it was first spotted in the highly unusual habitat of the river that flows through Paris, far from its usual Arctic waters. Rescuers had worked overnight to lift the male out of the Seine by crane for transfer to a saltwater pen, in a precarious effort to save the life of the mammal, which was no longer eating. It was then driven at a painstakingly slow speed north to the Normandy port of Ouistreham, where vets hoped to release the animal into a harbourside pen and then possibly into the wild. But the six vets unanimously decided after examining the beluga on arrival in Ouistreham that there was no other option than to put it down, the local authority of the Calvados region said. "Despite the technical and logistical efforts, the condition of the cetacean unfortunately deteriorated during the trip," it said. "Examinations showed that the beluga was in a state of great weakness and its respiratory activity failing. The decision was therefore taken collectively, with the veterinarians, to euthanize it," it added. – 'Tragic outcome' – After nearly six hours of work by dozens of divers and rescuers, the 800-kilogramme (1,800-pound) cetacean had been lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians. The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water. The beluga was then given a health check and driven to Ouistreham. "During the journey the vets noted a worsening of his health and in particular the breathing," said Florence Ollivet-Courtois, a vet for the local emergency services, in a video posted on social media. "The animal was not getting enough air and suffering visibly. We therefore decided that it made no sense to set it free and proceeded to euthanasia." It remains unclear why the beluga had strayed this far south and Ollivet-Courtois said an autopsy may give further clues about is condition. The Sea Shepherd NGO, which has been assisting in the rescue, said on Twitter that the rescue operation was "risky" but "essential" to give the animal a chance. "Following the deterioration of his condition, the vets took the decision to euthanize him. We are devastated by this tragic outcome that we knew was very likely," it said. The four-metre (13-foot) whale was discovered more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded about 130 kilometres (80 miles) inland from the English Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy. Since Friday, the animal's movement inland had been blocked by a lock some 70 kilometres northwest of Paris, and its health deteriorated after it refused to eat. – Killer whale also died – This is the second drama involving a big marine mammal in an unexpected area to grip France in the last months. A sick killer whale — a member of the dolphin family also known as an orca — was spotted in the Seine in May but died after attempts failed to guide the animal back to the sea. Interest in the beluga's fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals, officials said. While belugas migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms in their native Arctic waters, they rarely venture so far. According to France's Pelagis Observatory, which specialises in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine. The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman's net in 1948. bl-mb-sjw/jh/jj
Brazilian authorities arrested a late art collector's daughter Wednesday for allegedly orchestrating a scam in which a supposed psychic moved into her octogenarian mother's home and stole millions, police and media reports said.
Moscow should not be shy in ‘accepting the hand extended to us by Kim Jong-un’, says Russian defence expert
Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps confirmed drills had started in southern county of Pingtung
Unification Church followers in Japan and their families have faced harassment and death threats since the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the organisation's Japanese branch said Wednesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday declared a "shining victory" over Covid-19, after officials reported no new cases of the virus for nearly two weeks.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -The World Cup in Qatar will kick-off a day earlier than scheduled if FIFA's ruling bureau agree to a plan to hold the opening ceremony and the host nation's first match on Sunday Nov. 20th, a source close to the discussions told Reuters. The original plan was for the opening ceremony to be held before Qatar's game on Nov. 21 against Ecuador — which created the unusual situation of two matches being held before the ceremony. The Group A match between Senegal v Netherlands and the Group B match between England and Iran were scheduled to take place before the ceremony on the Monday.
Endangered sharks, rays and skates in the Mediterranean are more frequently caught in protected than in unprotected areas, according to research published Tuesday highlighting the need for better conservation for critically threatened species.
Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of carrying out rocket strikes that killed 14 civilians in areas near a nuclear power plant, as the G7 warned that Russian control of the facility "endangers the region".
Lion City Sailors head coach Kim Do-hoon and Tampines Rovers assistant coach Mustafic Fahrudin were fined and banned for 3 games for violent conduct in an SPL match last month.
A landmark sexual harassment case in China was set to return to court Wednesday after an earlier ruling dealt a blow to the country's fledgling #MeToo movement.
Can Tottenham Hotspur mount a credible challenge for the English Premier League title? Much could depend on their secret weapon, winger Dejan Kulusevski.
Several dozen prominent US and international economists urged the United States Wednesday to hand over to Afghanistan $7 billion in central bank reserves frozen when the Taliban seized control of the country nearly one year ago.