Live TV and radio interviews, frying pan table tennis and a hula-hoop challenge. Just your average media day when you are off to the Olympics next week!

It was a grand tour of the BBC for Liam Pitchford and Sam Walker as they did the rounds of MediaCity in Manchester today.

The athletes’ competitive juices started flowing early on as they played a challenge match for BBC Interactive, featuring tiny bats, left-handed play and those frying pans – but you will have wait to see who won when the feature is published on the BBC website.

From there it was into the 5Live Breakfast studio with Clare McDonnell and Nicky Campbell, with an estimated two million listeners hearing about the Rio build-up and even having the sound effects from a little game of keepy-up between the two athletes.

You can listen by clicking here – the segment starts after 2hr 55min 15sec.

A little promotional film for the BBC Microbit project, which aims to teach coding to children, was followed by a slot on the Victoria Derbyshire show live on BBC2.

Liam and Sam came across as relaxed while sports presenter Jessica Creighton put the questions in front of cameras in the BBC Sport studio, with around 250,000 viewers tuning in.

To watch the interview, click here – and scroll to 1hr 11min 28sec in the programme.

The hula-hoop challenge, a pre-recorded segment for BBC Breakfast, had the potential to be less relaxing as Sam and then Liam had to answer a series of quickfire questions for 60 seconds while hula-hooping.

Table Tennis England is sworn to secrecy on which of the two guys performed best – the video below might provide a clue!

BBC World was the next stop and with 70 million viewers set to watch tonight as Liam and Sam are interviewed by presented Chris Mitchell – even getting out of their seats to play impromptu games across the desk of the main BBC Sport studio.

It was a lot of fun and you can see the result at 6.30pm today on BBC World.

The final stop was for children’s show MoTD Kickabout, where Liverpool fans Sam and Liam were asked to choose their ultimate five-a-side team and had some friendly banter about which of them would get to play alongside the stars they selected.

Liam and Sam will join Paul Drinkhall and reserve Tom Jarvis in Sheffield for some more training this week before they fly to the Team GB camp in Belo Horizonte next Tuesday.

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