28 Jan 2025

 Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) successfully held its annual senior national teams selection in Gaborone this weekend.

BTTA vice president technical, who is also the competitions director, Kabo Mosarwe said the association was happy with the outcome of the tournament. 

“Participants came from as far as Francistown and Maun, and this shows the eagerness of players to get into the national team. The competition was tough. We only wanted two players per each gender to add to the top ranked ones, so this means that we now have three members for each gender in the national team,” he said. 

He explained that the number one ranked players we due to points accumulated in tournaments held throughout the past year. 

Mosarwe further indicated that equally impressive was the high number of young players.

“Even though the selection was for the senior national teams, the youth also came in large numbers, and this is good for development because even if they do not make it into the team, it gives them experience and motivation,” he said. 

Mosarwe expressed confidence that the players that made it into the national team were good enough to compete both regionally and internationally. 

He said some of the major tournaments they were readying for included the Region 5 in Namibia, which will be in June, as well as the Africa Championships in Tunisia. 

The winner in the women’s category, Salome Matlhatsi, said she was elated as it was her first time to make it into the senior team after years of trying. 

“I have tried in the past and it came to a point where I once decided not to try my luck anymore because I kept on failing to make the mark. However, this year I decided to give it one more try because I believed I was more prepared than in previous years,” she said. 

Matlhatsi attributed her preparedness to discipline and thorough training after joining the BDF Table Tennis Club, which she said helped with intensity. 

The 37-year-old indicated that last year, she ranked number five, and that the aim this year was to rank number one 

The winner in the men’s category, Boago Malobela, also indicated his desire to rank top.

“I know that this will take a lot of training and ensuring that I win as many tournaments as it takes,” he said. 

Even though he has been a constant figure in the national team for close to a decade, Malobela said he never had it easy. 

“Each time I had to sweat to make it. Competition is always tough and there is ever hardly a favourite, which means one has to bring their top game each time. 

However, this year I am happy that for the first time, I won all my qualifying games in the tournament, which shows preparedness,” he said. 

The Smash Maniacs hard-hitter said the level of competition was indicated by the fact that there were new faces in the national team every year. 

He also called on ping pong players to come back to the game, especially the national teams selection as the more the players, the tougher the competition. 

Other players that made it into the national team were Thobo Matlhatsi and Constance Kuswani. 

The four players joined Tshepiso Rebatenne and Bakang Maloka who made the cut by virtue of rankings. ENDS