The inspection will be carried out at the Botho University, Ave Maria, and Game City roof top. According to information reaching SportMonitor, the inspection comes at a time when the Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) is planning to launch venue host partnerships this week.
Contacted for comment, BTTA spokesperson, Tshegofatso Malepa, said the facilities inspection will be conducted by the Gaborone City Mayor, Austin Abraham and BTTA sponsor, Phoenix of Botswana Assurance on Thursday while the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) and Indian High Commission to Botswana follow on Friday. “The inspection is very important because we want the venues to be ready to host the games. We are expecting all African countries to send representation but if that fails we expected round 39 players from across the continent.
The number of teams coming for the tournament is not yet finalised. The inspection is also a commitment by our partners to the championships,” she said. When asked about the budget and funding for the event, Malepa said they have received a grant from International Table Tennis Federation-Africa (ITTF) and they are working on finding sponsorship to cushion the shortfall towards the operational cost of the tournament. Regarding the amount needed for a successful tournament, Malepa explained that the budget can only be shared by the finance committee by Friday.
The BTTA was granted permission to host Africa Youth Championships in November 2023 and the competition is scheduled for July 15-21 in Gaborone. This will be followed by the Commonwealth Youth Championships. Both of these international tournaments are aimed at players under the age of 15 and under the age of 19 respectively. In line with the Botswana hosting policy, BNSC granted the BTTA permission to host the international events considering the BTTA track record of successfully hosting events of this stature. Meanwhile, six Batswana table tennis players who are based in India were in action yesterday and by the time of going to print, they had all reached the knock out stage. The players are: Men: Tshireletso Samuel, Arthur Kgaswe and Ndelu Mooketsi. Women: Oratile Kedisaletse, Tshephang Motlhamme and Thembelihle Montshiwa. Doubles: Mooketsi and Kgaswe.
