11 Jul 2024

Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) is hosting two prestigious and highly competitive youth events; the Africa Hopes Week and Challenge and International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Youth Championship.

The Africa Hopes Week and Challenge held at Botho University Multi-purpose Hall started on Tuesday until Sunday while the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)  Africa Youth Championship will be held from July 15 to 21.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Africa Hopes Week and Challenge, Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) deputy president in charge of development, Andrew Mudibo said table tennis had five regions in Africa being the North, Eastern, Southern, Western and Central.  Each region, he said had conducted Africa Hopes Week and Challenge, which was more like a talent identification competition and the best two countries from each region were selected to play at the Africa Hopes Week and Challenge.

Finalists will qualify to represent Africa at the World Hopes Challenge. 

The Africa Hopes Week and Challenge caters for the development of U-12 players and Mudibo said during the event players would be under rigorous training by an expert from the ITTF. He said it was important to develop players who would fare well at regional, continental and international levels. 

“Towards the end, they will have a tournament where they will play to showcase what they have learnt. After concluding the Africa Hopes Week and Challenge, we will then divert our focus to the ITTF Africa Youth Championships where we will have an increased number of players,” he said

As for the Africa Junior Championship, Mudibo said it was an open event where countries were open to send teams. 

“I was told that we have got around 70 entries, which is a very big number and I am expecting that by the time the event starts, the number will be higher than what we are looking at now and if that happens it will be a very good sign that the future of the sport in the region is great,” he said.

BTTA public relations and communications manager, Tshegofatso Malepa said in the U-12 boys of the ongoing Africa Hopes Week and Challenge, Botswana was represented by the duo of Reneilwe Lekorwe and Tinashe Dzvaka in the boys category as well as Boitlamo Nkele and Masa Motlhabane in the U-12 girls category.

The week-long training sessions will be under the watchful eye of Eva Jeler, a renowned and seasoned table tennis coach, assigned by the ITTF to nurture the expertise of the young players.

The Africa Hopes Week and Challenge will feature U-12 table tennis players from 10 African countries including the host Botswana, South Africa, Togo, Benin, Guinea, Uganda, Rwanda, Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Egypt. Ends