Kelly Sibley and Hannah Hicks enjoyed a chance meeting with Labour leader Ed Miliband at the annual conference for the Federation of Small Businesses last week. The British ranked numbers one and three, respectively, were attending the event on behalf of Team 2012, presented by Visa, who are raising funds to support 1,200 British athletes to help create our best prepared Olympic and Paralympic teams for London 2012.

The table tennis stars were showing of their skills to guests, offering them advice on how to improve their game, while throwing in the odd master stroke highlighting their class.

Mr Miliband arrived at the conference late in the day but on hearing of the athletes presence was eager to meet and discuss all things London 2012. Mr Miliband then requested to knock up with Kelly and Hannah, who gratefully took him up on the offer.

“I didn’t expect to be playing table tennis with the leader of the Labour party when I arrived this morning,” said Kelly, the recently-crowned national champion.

“Mr Miliband was very interested in how our training was going and keen to ask us about our hopes for London 2012. He was very encouraging and wished us luck for the coming months.”

For athlete updates and to show your support, visit www.team-2012.com