Low interest on table tennis season opener

Kabelo Boranabi | Friday February 10, 2017 11:20

Speaking to Mmegi Sport yesterday, the secretary general of New Horizon Table Tennis Club, Marang Ramahobo said they are having difficulties, as players are yet to register for the tournament.

“We have a challenge as no body has come forward to register or show interest. Only a few players have called enquiring about it. We expected large numbers as it was supposed to be held in January, but was postponed, so the players have long known about it,” he said.

Ramahobo, however was optimistic that a larger number of players would turn up on the day, as the registration is still open. “It might be because we have not changed the prospectus. It is not binding that players register before the tournament date, they can also register on the day,” he said.

 The aim of the tournament, formerly known as the Valentine Table Tennis Extravaganza, is to promote table tennis, bring table tennis players together and have fun.

The one-day tourney is a merger of the Youth Open Championships and the mixed team event. The youth championships will feature the Under-21, Under-18 and Under-14 singles. Registration is P10 for the Under-14, P20 for the Under-18 and P30 for the Under-21 while the mixed team event is P50.

The last local table tennis competition was in August last year and Ramahobo believes that the long break could also have an impact on the low turn out. “There has been no activity since August. It is demoralising as the BTTA calendar was supposed to run until December. It is very uninspiring, some players have long stopped training, as they had nothing to prepare for. It all goes down to the leadership really, it seems like their focus is somewhere else,” he said. 

Ramahobo also said that they intend to take the tournaments to the open spaces around the city in an attempt to attract public’s interest in the sport. “Next year we want to take the extravaganza to the malls or public parks. In this way, we could interest the public,” he said. The tournament starts at 8am.