Lowri Hurd
Date and place of birth: 19/12/2007; Leuven in Belgium
Hometown: Bedford
Lives: Bedford
TT Class: 9
Current world ranking: 18
International debut: World Para Future Costa Brava 2026
Lowri's story
Lowri’s early years were spent in Belgium, India and England as the family moved around with her father’s job. Having attended British schools in India and Belgium she moved to Grantham College and now lives with her brother in Bedford while her parents are currently based in Paris.
Table tennis is in her blood. Grandfather Roy Williams was a former Rhyl, Clwyd and North Wales multi-champion and leading administrator and her mother Natasha Williams went on to become Wales' number one ranked woman player. Capped 224 times she represented Wales in several World, European and Commonwealth Championships, winning a Commonwealth bronze medal in Glasgow in 1997.
Lowri began playing table tennis competitively at the age of 12 although football was her first love.
“When I was younger I played football and that was my favourite sport growing up,” she said, “but I couldn’t run very well because my joints just stiffened up really badly. When I first started playing table tennis I was living in Belgium and playing at a club where everyone was speaking French whereas I played football at school and everyone spoke English so I preferred football, but when I moved to England I started to really like table tennis.
“When you’re playing football if you do something creative and lose the ball it affects the team whereas in table tennis you can just play free. You can do various different things and it won’t affect anybody else so you can do what you want as long as it goes on the table and you win. I’ve always been competitive but as I’ve got older I’ve started to become more of a team person.”
Lowri won multiple national titles as a junior including the Welsh National U19 and U21 Championships at the age of 16 and in 2023, she earned a silver medal in the U19 team event at the Austrian Youth Open with Team Wales and won the consolation singles event. At the Home Nations in November 2023, she secured a silver medal in the U19 singles and a gold medal in the U19 doubles and was also part of the Wales U19 girls’ team that finished 12th at the 2023 European Youth Championships.
Despite her success it had become apparent that something was affecting Lowri physically and in 2025 she was diagnosed with Lymphedema - a chronic condition characterized by swelling, typically in the arms or legs, caused by a buildup of protein-rich lymph fluid due to damaged or blocked lymphatic vessels.
“I was not diagnosed at birth even though I was born with it,” she said. “It was never picked up on because I played sport when I was younger which is really rare for my condition. I didn’t have heart pains and I could breathe OK, but I thought when I was little that the way my joints were stiff was normal. In 2024 I thought that something wasn’t right because I started to get chest pains. I was doing my GCSEs, and I was up all night screaming in pain and that was when my parents and I thought there was something wrong.
“It was really hard – you know that something is not right, but you don’t know what to say to people. You say to your coach something isn’t right, but you don’t really know what it is. It took them a year to work out the first diagnosis, and it was a really long process.”
Six months later further genetic testing revealed that Lowri was also affected by Myhre Syndrome, a rare multisystem progressive genetic connective tissue disorder involving severe cardiovascular and respiratory complications.
“I didn’t play any tournaments for a few months because I knew my head would be all over the place,” said Lowri. “It was a big shock to my family and very hard, but I kept training because I knew if I stayed in my room, it wouldn’t be good for me.”
The diagnosis opened up the possibility of Lowri playing Para events and she made her international debut at the World Para Future Costa Brava in Spain in March 2026 where she was officially classified as a class 9. Having taken bronze in the singles, she took gold in the class 20 women’s doubles with Spain’s Victoria Sorribes Barba and then combined with GB teammate Max Flint to take gold in the class 20 mixed doubles.
“It was good to get my classification out of the way,” she said. “The standard was really good and I got to the semis in the singles and then won two golds so it made me think that I could go quite far in Para table tennis. It might be hard to qualify for the World Championships this year but next year I’d like to medal in the Europeans, and I want to try and qualify for the Paralympics in LA in 2028.”
In September Lowri starts a degree in sports coaching at Hallam University in Sheffield which will enable her to train regularly with the British squad at the UK Institute of Sport and she has now joined the Performance squad.
Football remains a passion and Lowri has joined the team’s band of Arsenal fans. She also enjoys gaming with her friends.
2026 Results:
World Para Elite Yvelines, France – group stages, women’s singles (class 9)
World Para Elite Spokane, USA – group stages, women’s singles (class 8-9)
World Para Challenger Spokane, USA – group stages, women’s singles (class 8-9)
World Para Elite Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand – group stages, women’s singles (class 9); QF, women’s doubles (class 20); QF, mixed doubles (class 17)
World Para Future Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand – bronze, women’s singles (class 9)
World Para Elite Beijing, China – group stages, women’s singles (class 9); group stages, women’s doubles (class 20); QF, mixed doubles (class 17)
World Para Future Ostrava, Czechia – group stages, women’s singles (class 9)
World Para Challenger Lasko, Slovenia – bronze, women’s singles (class 9); group stages, women’s doubles (class 20)
World Para Future Costa Brava, Spain – bronze, women’s singles (class 9); gold, women’s doubles (class 20); gold, mixed doubles (class 20)