27 Aug 2014

New Horizon Table Tennis Club will this weekend (August 30-31) hold an open tournament dubbed the New Horizon Open.

According to information from the club, which is affiliate of the Botswana Table Tennis Association, the inaugural competition will be held at Maikano Junior Secondary School in Gaborone West.

Competition will be in the men and women’s singles, boys and girls singles, men and women’s doubles, mixed doubles, juniors (under 18 years old) and veterans (over 40 years old) categories.

The tournament will initially be played in group stages, followed by single knockout draw of last 32 for the junior and elite singles events. Other events will be played in double knockout system except for the veteran singles event, which will be played in round robin format throughout.

“The main aim of the event is to promote table tennis and in particular honour the BTTA calendar of events as this will be a national ranking tournament- that is, whoever participates in the event will earn points in the BTTA national ranking system.

The event is also aimed at raising funds for the club,” said the New Horizon club secretary, Marang Ramahobo. Ramahobo said BTTA last year decided to allow clubs the opportunity to host national ranking tournaments in order to build capacity within club.

He added that they expected many top players to compete at the New Horizon Open since the tournament was a ranking event. So far, he said, three clubs -Nhabe, BDF and Dithubaruba - had confirmed their participation.

“Some schools have also confirmed that they would be coming. I also believe all top 16 players would come because it is a ranking tournament,” said Ramahobo.

He said his club, which is based at the National Youth Centre in Gaborone West, will field mostly young players. He indicated that the tournament will offer prizes for winners, and also some special prizes for married couples, mother and son partnerships, father and daughter partnerships and also brother and sister partnerships.

“Through the special prizes we want to encourage families to play table tennis.” However, he said they were still struggling to secure a sponsor and pleaded with the business community to assist them.

He encouraged the rest of the community to attend the tournament and enjoy table tennis. Games will start at 8am on Saturday and Sunday. Ends