Five Questions: Karina Le Fevre

Karina Le Fevre

Selected for the Commonwealth Games this year Karina has come on a long way since her first Commonwealths back in 2010. She broke into the England team at just 17 in 2010 and has since went on to help her club, Ormesby TTC, win the British League; whilst competing with England around the world. Read what she had to say about the Open, funding and TV:

1) The draw has been made and your are set to face Tin-Tin Ho, Amy Blagbrough and Maria Tsaptsinos. Have you played any of them before?

I have played Maria a couple of times in domestic events. In our senior nationals 2013 and 2014 I managed to come through the matches 4-3 so I always expect a tough match. I just have to focus on playing my best table tennis rather than my opponent. Tin Tin I know well from playing in a team with her and we have all just came back from China etc. I don’t play her that often. She’s higher ranked than me and plays a lot more internationally. I don’t feel she is unbeatable but again I would have to play my best level and also play tactically well to win that match.

2) Tin-Tin Ho is a great young talent for English Table Tennis, are there any others coming through at the moment?

I don’t know much about the young players coming through. It’s rare for seniors and juniors to train together and I spent most of my time training at my club at home or in Sheffield with Kelly Sibley and the BTTAD squad. I don’t see many juniors on the Grand Prix circuit.

3) The Commonwealth games are coming up fast now; are there any more competitions before then?

In the run up to the Commonwealth Games out preparation have been really good. We have just came back from China, we have another training camp in Lillishall next week followed by the K2 event. Then we have a week at home and a camp that’s in the actual venue/village at Glasgow. We do have a friendly match scheduled against Australia at Preston on 19th July so that should be good, we can treat that as a real match to get ourselves really sharp and focused before we enter the village for good the next day!

4) Table Tennis has had it’s budget cut to nothing for the next Olympics, how hard is it to be self funded and still be expected to compete on an international level?

Funding is an issue now and is one of the things every player has to think about even for training purposes not just international competitions. International competitions can be really expensive so it’s a case of looking at the tournaments you can take the most from and planning early!

5) Finally with BT Sports covering the latter stages do you think we can expect to see more coverage of the sport in the future?

I think table tennis is starting to get more coverage now so hopefully that will continue. The Commonwealth Games will also be some exposure for the sport on the tv/red button.

Thanks for taking time out to answer your 5 Questions Karina, best of luck in a strong group at the Open. The YouTube video is a very young Karina and her Ormesby TTC back in 2010.

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