South Africa emerges victors
Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA), over the weekend, hosted the Botswana International Open Tournament that attracted 142 athletes from 5 nations: Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
In the Senior Men category, two South Africans, Luc Abrahams and Chetan Nathoo faced off, Abrahams suffered a 2-4 defeat against Chetan Nathoo ,who dominated the match from the first set.
Meanwhile, in the ladies category, it was also a South African final in which Danish Patel walloped Laila Edwards 4-0 to claim the championship.
Local players were knocked out in different stages. Defending champion from Senior men singles, Bakang Maloka, was knocked out at the last 16 knock out stages.
The women defending champion, Tshepiso Rebatenne was knocked out at the quarter final.
Thobo Matlhatsi, Phetso Jack and Salome Mathatsi were also knocked out respectively at the last 16. Tshenolo Mooketsi,
Constance Kuswani, Boitshwarelo Butale progressed further into the quarterfinals but were also knocked out of the competition.
On the other hand, Botswana’ s local top two men, Tshenolo Mooketsi and Thobo Matlhatsi (BDF) took on Chetan Nathoo (RSA) and Tshepang Maloga. They made the swing team that took down Botswana’s top men in a 3- 1 match.
The swing team proceeded to the final where they faced a strong team from South Africa that was made up of Theo Cogilc and Ruan scholtz who won the tournament by 3- 0 margin.
Boitshwarelo Butale and Operator Ramagapu of Smash Maniacs Club lost to Tshepiso Rebatenne and Zodwa Maphang who formed a swing team, the swing team won 3-0 during the semifinal. Tshepiso Rebatenne and Zodwa Maphanga faced South Africa’s finest in the category, Laila Edwards and Danish Patel.
Team RSA took the champion home through a thin margin when they won the category 3- 2 in the deciding set in a highly contested match while Rebatenne became
the only medal winner for team Botswana.
Speaking in an interview, BTTA spokesperson, Tshego Malepa said local athletes performed well.
“As I noted that our top ranking athletes went up to the last 16, quarterfinals, semifinalist as well as a podium finish.”
“We are intending to organise
more international tournaments to expose our athletes to competitive tournaments with the aim to increase the medal basket.
We are doing well on the grassroot level, the under 12. Reneilwe Lekorwe in the SA tournament finished on the last 16 but this time around he went all the way to the podium finish.”