Lindhead School's Mia Longman earns national table tennis title

Longman was seeded second in the Under-11 Girls’ Singles at the PG Mutual U10-U13 National Championships, held by Table Tennis England in Wolverhampton.

She battled through the group stage and early knockout rounds to take her place in the final against Chui-Que Wong, who had knocked out top seed Sienna Jetha in the quarter-finals but had been defeated by Longman in the group stage.

It looked as if the result would be repeated as Longman took the first two sets confidently, but Wong fought back and saved three match points as she won the third set.

However, Longman was not to be denied and won the fourth set to complete a 3-1 (11-5, 11-5, 11-13, 13-11) victory.

Longman, a pupil at Lindhead School, said: “I’m really happy about it. I thought I could possibly get to the semi-finals but not the final.

“My coach (Martin Lowe) really helped me and when I won the semi-final, I believed I could win the gold.”

Longman, who has been playing at the Scarborough Premier club for two years, also played in the Under-12 and Under-13s.

In the U12s, she beat higher-ranked Emily Cheung 3-0 (15-13, 11-8, 11-8) in the group stage and won the group, but lost 3-1 (11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8) in the last 16 to Mabel Shute.

In the U13s, she went out in the group stage, finishing third behind top seed Anna Green and Ella Pashley, who beat Longman 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9) to qualify.