Clash of the Titans tournament returns
Smash Maniacs Table Tennis club will be hosting the ‘ Clash of the Titans’ tournament at BUAN sports hall after several years without the tournament.
The tournament will be going into the fourth edition this year, having started in 2014; it was hosted consecutively until 2016 and it returns this year, now rejuvenated and redefined.
According to team manager, Boysie Selerio, the tournament is also to pay tribute and homage to the Legend of the Club, Matshidiso Osi- Moses who passed away in 2017. “We are recognizing the people who have served the table tennis with heart, amongst them our club legend,” he said. “The person we are paying respect to was the pioneer of these events. She was laid to rest in 2017 and we never hosted a tournament thereafter; so this year we decided to just host this tournament in her memory and carry her legacy forward.” Furthermore, improvements include increased price money to market the tournament to local players. First position will walk away with P1000, Second position P600 while Semi- finalists will get P300; the price money applies to both men and women categories.
“In the Covid era, we are lucky the situation is getting better so we have increased the number of participants as there is no limit of numbers; we are therefore expecting an increased participation from across the country and we are confident that big name athletes will participate in this tournament now and going forward.”
However, the challenges that the club encountered are Covid- 19 related since they couldn’t include other categories that they wished to, the likes of Mixed doubles and Doubles for both men and women. The main sponsor is Dingleberry Holdings alongside, Biggies Aluminum Frames and the Botswana Table Tennis Association ( BTTA). Only BTTA affiliated clubs and individual players will be allowed to take part in the weekend tournament.
Boysie said they intend to improve in the development side of the sport going forward to produce more youngsters for the future. “We want to have under 12, Under 15 and Under 18 in categories for the future of the sport.