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 BROTHERS Stephen and Ryan Jenkins had the honour of teaming up for Wales at this year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Ranked three and one in Wales respectively, the Rhondda brothers hoped to add to the team bronze they won in the last games in Malaysia and the gold Ryan, 27, won in the doubles.
But, despite valiant efforts along the way, the Welsh team's hopes of striking it rich on the gold trail in Melbourne ended in disappointment.
Ryan reached the last 16 of the men's singles with a 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand player Andrew Hubbard, but was then beaten by Nigerian Segun Toriola, while Stephen also had no joy in the singles when he was beaten 4-2 by Canadian player Pierre Hines.
But team-mate Adam Robertson from Wrexham put up a better show but eventually he too suffered heartache - losing a seven-game bronze medal thriller to defending champion Teriola. Robertson was winning 3-2 in games and leading 4-2 in the sixth, before Teriola broke his bat and recovered to take the game 11-9 and winning the decider 11-4.
But despite Robertson's obvious disappointment, Wales coach Alun Griffiths insisted the 22-year-old had done his nation proud.
"Adam has played fantastically well and he has had an amazing tournament," said Griffiths. "He has played unbelievably well in the singles and the team event. He is only 22 and he has a bright future ahead of him."
Wales also lost in the team bronze medal play-off to Nigeria but beat the Commonwealth champions England in the group stage, Malaysia in the quarter-finals but went down to Singapore in the semi-finals.
"The players have been fantastic and the table tennis has been on television quite a bit and that can only raise the profile," said Griffiths. "We have a lot of clubs in Wales now and the opportunity is there for the youngsters."
Following his efforts in Melbourne Ryan will concentrate on promoting the game in Wales, running training camps for aspiring young Olympians, while Stephen, who plays semi-professionally as well as being a support worker in Cardiff, will compete for Swiss club Wadenswil, near Zurich.
"They are one of the top clubs in Europe and in one of the top leagues," said Stephen. "Only Germany has a better league."
And having finished third in the Swiss league last season, Stephen hopes his team can top the league this year to enter the table tennis equivalent of the Champions League.
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