GARNDIFFAITH table tennis ace Mike Marsden is following in Gerwyn Price’s footsteps by taking on the best his sport has to offer at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Former Cross Keys rugby star Price made headlines before Christmas when he qualified to play world number five Peter Wright in the William Hill World Darts Championship.

And now Marsden, a member of the Wales national men’s table tennis team, has won through to play in The World Championships of Ping Pong at the famous London venue at the end of the month.

Matchroom Sport, the company behind PDC darts and World Snooker, is promoting the ping pong extravaganza on January 24 and January 25 live on Sky Sports.

Using traditional sandpaper rackets, the World Championship of Ping Pong is a throwback to the early days of table tennis and aims to catapult ping pong into the big league and onto the international television stage.

Marsden qualified by winning the Welsh Ping Pong title in November last year, beating former champion Dean Cundy 3-2 in the final.

The 33-year-old will be the only Welsh representative in London as the event is limited to 64 of the world’s best with a $100,000 prize fund.

“The prize money is a big attraction as table tennis prizes are only a few hundred pounds in Britain,” said Marsden, who plays in the Swedish league.

“The fact that it’s on TV is great for the sport as well and will be really good exposure.

“We’re using the old fashioned bats to slow it down for the TV audience because table tennis is the fastest racquet sport there is,” he added.

“I have to win two of my first three matches to get onto a TV table so that is my first aim.”

Originally from Durham, Marsden has lived in Garndiffaith for the past two years and has represented Wales at the table tennis world championships in Japan and the European championships in Portugal.

“I’m really looking forward to it and it will also be a good payback to my sponsors Butterfly, Tees Sport and local company G.O.S Engineering of Blaenavon,” he added.

Wayne Gregory, managing director of Marsden’s sponsor G.O.S & Engineering, said: “We are proud to back Michael in such a prestigious event.

“It’s great to get behind a local lad. We wish him the best of luck and hope he gets as far as he can in the tournament.”