28 Jun 2023

Botswana is set make historyby hosting, for the first time, this year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Southern Africa Region World Qualifiers.

Table tennis players and enthusiasts will gather for the qualifiers at Botho University in Gaborone from today until Sunday.

In an interview, Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) public relations officer, Tshegofatso Malepa said the historic event would kick start with an official opening today.

Malepa said the regional qualifiers would see the top eight players in the individual category and the top two teams in the team event qualifying for the Africa Championships penciled for Tunisia in September.

In the quest to make it through to the Africa Championships, Botswana has lined up an eight-member formidable team comprising four men and four women.

On the men’s side will be Masa Lesole, Tshenolo Mooketsi, Bakang Maloka and Boago Malobela, while Constance Kuswani, Olorato Ramagapu, Tshepiso Rebatenne and Game Kebodiwang make up the women’s team.

The team’s coach, Thobo Matlhatsi indicated that players were ready to formidably fight and win.

Other than the four weeks training, Matlhatsi said the national team players were kept busy through the recently concluded league and other tournaments.

“Players are physically and mentally fit as they have performed exceptionally well in the recent past league and tournaments. 

Expectations are high as all the players are rearing to go further and even qualify for the world stage,” he said.

He added that they were anticipating a highly competitive tournament because they had played most of their opponents in past competitions.

“In the past tournaments, some local players were able to reach the top four stage and finish with bronze medals. 

Our target is to go all the way to the finals in both the individual and team event categories,” he added.

Conversely, he said the top eight players in the individual category would quality for the Tunisia-bound ITTF Africa Championships while only the top two teams would qualify.

He said countries that had confirmed their participation in the ITTF Southern Africa Region World qualifiers included Lesotho, South Africa, eSwatini, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia.

He said Malawi had pulled out at the eleventh hour while Mozambique had long indicated that they would not make it. ENDs