Kenya bowed out honorably with four medals as the Eastern Region Africa Top 16 qualifiers came to an end in Port Louis’ Complexe Sportiff de Beau Bassin.
The men’s team won a silver medal in the doubles on day two which was quite encouraging.
Kenya men and women settled for bronze medals in the team events.
Kenya women led by Sejal Thakkar and Sandra Charles Nyaga also settled for bronze medal in the ladies doubles.
Kenya’s most outstanding player was non other than Bryan Mutua who lost 4-1 to Mauritius Jason Pontoise.
Mutua attacked relentlessly in the opening set which he won 11-9.
But Pontoise was back in the groove to win the rest of the sets in the best of seven quarter final 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 and 12-10.
The Kenya team jets back from Port Louse at midday.
The Eastern Region is a composition 14 countries namely Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti , Ethiopia, Seychelles, Rwanda and Republic of Sudan.
After a somewhat shaky start on day one, Kenyans romped back forcibly to settle for bronze.
Kenya led by newcomer Bryan Mutua who was voted the best male league player back home in 2017 savored the silverware hoping to continue in the same spirit and fashion.
“To finish third in the region is no mean achievement. I want to thank my players for a good run on day two. At least they were able to play to instruction which is quite a good feeling,” said Michael Kuria, the Kenya team coach.
Kenya is seeking to be the leading TT nation in the region through Tucheze Tebo (Swahili for let’s play TT) initiative which seeks to bolster the fortunes of the game to desirable levels..
“I’m impressed with the boys and girls from Kenya. At least we can say we are headed in the right direction,” team manager Samson Ateka said.
ITTF Africa Eastern Region President Andrew Mudibo today met with the Mauritian Youth and Sports Minister Toussaint Stephane at the Complexe Sportiff de Beau Bassin, the government owned table tennis centre.
The Mauritian Minister promised to support the ping pong sport and indeed Mauritian Table Tennis Association Complexe’s bid to become “a center of excellence in Africa”. The Minister said his Government will look at how it can continue to develop table tennis in the Eastern Region and extended a special invite to the visiting Kenya Table Tennis Association President Andrew Mudibo to be among the special guests during the 2019 Indian Ocean Games that Mauritius will be hosting.
The Minister underscored the importance of government involvement in the development of all sports.
“On behalf of Kenya TTA and the Eastern Region, I wish to taken this opportunity to thank the Minister for his kind words and his special consideration. We will work together to ensure that we raise the standards in the region to desirable levels,” said Mudibo.
Courtesy KTTA