28 Nov 2013

The Botswana Table Tennis Association(BTTA) will be hosting the sixth edition of National Top 16 Closed Championships at St Joseph’s Multi-Purpose Hall in  on Saturday, November 30. The games start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 7 p.m.

Tiroyaone Motswasele, the BTTA assistant publicity secretary, said registration fees will be P50 for singles, P100 for doubles and P100 for mixed doubles. Only players who ranked within top 16 both in men and women would be eligible to play.

Motswasele said players would be divided into groups of four, meaning that there would be four groups of four players for both men and women. The round robin system will be used at that stage and two players from each group will proceed to the quarter final stage where single knockout system will be used. Mixed doubles and all doubles shall be single knock out.

He said since its inception in 2007, the duo of Smash Maniacs Table Tennis Club: Boitshwarelo Butale and Bonolo Mabote proved to be dominant over other players by winning five championships out possible six.

He indicated that in this year championships all eyes will be on Masa Lesole (Smash Maniacs) who is the defending champion in men’s singles. The young and promising player upset Thobo Matlhatsi (BDF) last year. He said that they are also expecting fireworks from the bouncing veteran Matshidiso Osi and skillful Butale. The tournament will be sponsored by Master Joinery. ENDS