The Ghana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) on Monday September 27, held a press conference at the Media Center of the Accra Sports Stadium to brief the media on its upcoming tournament and to officially launch the GTTA Youth Championship Tournament slated for Saturday October 2, 2021 at the Sports Hall of the Accra Sports Stadium.
In an opening address by the President of GTTA,
Mr. Mawuko Afadzinu, expressed his profound gratitude to the National Sports Authority and the media for their continuous support and for honoring their invitation to meeting. He mentioned that, their primary reason for the gathering was to officially outdoor the event.
Mr. Afadzinu explained that, 300 players across the country will take part in the tournament. The 300 players will include both male and female athletes which for the first time will witness a significant number of females partaking in the tournament as compared to previous tournaments held. This will serve as good grounds to prepare them towards the 2023 African Games to be held in Ghana. He further added that, the tournament is a foundation to make Table Tennis popular nationwide.
He suggested that, every region should be able to scout for such talents and be given technical support to nurture them to close the gap between the male and female players.
He also added that, there is going to be a project dubbed “The Sheroes Project” which is supported by the International Table Tennis Federation. This will open opportunities for females to participate in Table Tennis at the highest level which can even lead to having a female Table Tennis President in the near future. He further stated that per history, females usually performed better by bagging many medals as compared to their male counterpart.
Mr. Mawuko Afadzinu, thanked everyone present at the meeting and urged educational institutions to see Table Tennis as a platform to be recognized and excel in sports.
SHARON ODOI
NSA-PR
28/09/21