Kelly Sibley

Kelly Sibley (born 21 May 1988) 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.

Kelly Sibley
Kelly Sibley at the Pro B French Championships in 2006
Personal information
Full nameKelly Michelle Sibley
Nationality England
ResidenceNottingham
Born (1988-05-21) 21 May 1988
Leamington Spa, England
Playing styleRight Hand Attacking Shakehand
Height1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Medal record
Representing  England
Women's table tennis
Commonwealth Games
2014 GlasgowMixed Doubles
2018 Gold CoastTeam

Biography

Kelly began playing table tennis aged 8 years old at Lillington Free Church table tennis club in Lillington, Leamington Spa, inspired by her mother Lynn Bolitho, a former county-level table tennis player.[1]

In 2000, she represented England at the English Schools Championships.[2]

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[2] before relocating to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield [3]

Kelly represented England at the Commonwealth Games twice without medalling; 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.[4]

She also gained a Ladies Doubles Bronze Medal at the 2009 Commonwealth Championships, a team silver at the 2013 Commonwealth Championships[5] and a Division Two Gold Medal at the 2008 World Team Championships in China.[6]

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[2][7] 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[8] 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.[9] She won the women's singles national championship in March 2015[10] and was runner up the next two years.

In June 2015 she was part of the Great Britain table tennis squad which competed at the inaugural European Games in Baku.[11] At the 2018 Commonwealth Games Sibley won a bronze medal in the team event, beating Australia in the play-off game.[12] Shortly after the games she announced her retirement from the sport in order to focus on her job as head coach at the University of Nottingham[13]

As a player, she was sponsored by local firms Wright Hassell,[14] Building and Plumbing Supplies and, in 2011, sports betting community site OLBG.com.[15]

Personal life

Sibley married her wife Laura in April 2017. They met just after the 2012 Summer Olympics whilst Laura was working at a table tennis bar. She proposed to Sibley whilst in The Shard viewing St Paul's Cathedral.[16]

gollark: You should use the glorious code of this fork of ale's krist miner: https://pastebin.com/DKriPmPe
gollark: `write "ALSO YOUR CODE IS KIND OF BAD SOME OFFENSE"`
gollark: `write "DO NOT USE BRACKETS IF UNNECESSARY"`
gollark: `write "THIS IS VALID"`
gollark: Ah, yes. Try setting the user agent header.

See also

References
  1. "Kelly Sibley - Team GB - London 2012 Olympics". Telegraph.
  2. Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011 12:00 (10 August 2011). "Leamington's table tennis star gears up for Olympic dream - Local". Warwick Courier.
  3. "Personal Profile". Kellysibley.com. Archived from the original on 19 November 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth-games/28622748
  5. http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/girls-earn-silver-in-commonwealths/
  6. http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/sport/table-tennis-star-kelly-wins-gold-1-1057143
  7. "BBC Sport - Table Tennis - Table tennis star Kelly Sibley fears for Olympic dream". BBC News. 1 December 2010.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/competitions/competitions-information/national-championships/
  10. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/table-tennis/31703120
  11. http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/sibley-to-face-lithuanian-challenge-in-first-round/
  12. https://results.gc2018.com/en/table-tennis/results-women-s-team-fnl-00020000.htm Commonwealth Games results page
  13. https://teamengland.org/news/gold-coast-2018-medallist-kelly-sibley-retires- Team England announcement of her retirement
  14. "News - Kelly Sibley". Wright Hassall. 23 September 2010.
  15. http://www.olbg.com/about/OLBG%20Keep%20Olympic%20Prospect%27s%20Dream%20Alive.pdf
  16. https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/table-tennis-athlete-kelly-sibley/#gs.IP28obg Article on the couple on the Gay Star News website
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