Two secure spots in Africa table tennis contest
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday July 9, 2022 06:00
Leading woman, Tshepiso Rebatenne and Kola Modisaotsile booked spots at the African Championships following their exploits at the recent AUSC Region 5 games held in Johannesburg.
The two players were ranked sixth in their respective disciplines at the regional championships. The Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) sent a 10-member team to the AUSC games.
The team finished in the third position, behind champions South Africa and Angola. No local player managed to go beyond the quarterfinal stages. This is a drop in performance from last year as Botswana had finished second.
Speaking to Mmegi Sport, the team’s head coach Thobo Matlhatsi is, however, content with the team's performance at the tournament. “It was a very tough tournament but the boys and the girls showed up and produced some good displays. As compared to the previous year, we had an increased number of countries participating.
For instance, Angola was not there last year. So it was very tough competition overall. We did not have luck in most games and I must say I am impressed with the team.
It is a young team looking at the age and I believe that we’ll go far with this team. A lot of progress can be made with this team. We have new young players in the team and I think they did very well in their first tournament outside the country.
Despite our performance, the fact that we have two players qualifying for the Africa Championship shows the level of determination we had at the competition,” Matlhatsi said. The African Table Tennis Championships is a continental qualifying tournament for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, which will be hosted in Durban, South Africa from May 22-28, 2023.