Road to Slovenia: Table tennis coaches, players trained ahead of World event to be held in June in Otocec

By REBECCA GICHANA

Ivy Nekesa of Uganda returns a shot during the training session ahead of the International Table Tennis Federation course at Arya Girls Parklands, Nairobi, yesterday. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/ STANDARD]

Canadian coach Dejan Papic has said Kenya has more to do when it comes to indoor games.

Papic was speaking to FeverPitch yesterday as the country hosts intensive training and competitions of the 2014 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)-Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) at Arya Sports Club in Nairobi.

“The training has been a success. Our aim was to educate coaches and players to see how they can improve their sport,” said the official.

The two-week event has attracted 16 players and 12 coaches from three countries – Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

By the end of the course today, there will be a one-day qualifying championship for the World Hopes Week and Challenge to be held in Otocec, Slovenia.

So far, Nigeria has four participants and Uganda four in the Under-13 category.

Uganda’s seed one in the category, Ivy Nekesa, and her counterpart, Nyanza Open  champion Rodney Sssemata, will represent their country.

Great improvement

Hopes Week Challenge director, Paul Mulandu, says there is great improvement and they are looking forward to introducing the sport in schools to get more people playing.

“I have seen young coaches who have a great productive life in the future. They have a lot of enthusiasm. We have many private clubs and hope to involve them in this sport,” said Mr Mulandu.

Pipac says the country needs to go to grassroot areas to make the sport more popular among the youth.

“I have seen great talent in both players and coaches. I hope that Kenya will consider better facilities and building capacity to make the sport a success. I also need to see more female players and coaches in the sport because during the whole course I have seen only one girl from Kenya.”

No players

Kenya will not be fielding any players in the competition because there are no players of the same age group, but Mulandu says it has been a great experience for the participants.

Home of the ITTF Cadet Challenge in late October and early November 2013, Otocec in Slovenia will host the 2014 ITTF World Hopes Week and Challenge.

The games will commence on June 9 and end on June 15. It will be the fourth time that the event has been staged.

The first four days will focus on coaching and the last three – June 13 to 15 – are reserved for the World Hopes Challenge.

The Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat, Austria, staged the event in 2011 and 2013; in 2012 the host was the Swedish city of Falkenberg.

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