The 12th African Games will take place from 19th to 31st August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. The African Games serves as a platform for athletes in Africa to compete and win laurels. In readiness towards the African Games, the Ghana Table Tennis Association has started a justify your inclusion tournament of top Table Tennis players in the country.
The justifies, are in three stages, the group stage, which commenced on 3rd and concluded on 4th July 2019, the round robin stage, which commences from the 10th to 12th of July 2019 and the final stage which would commence from 17th to 18th July 2019.
3rd July saw thirty two male and eighteen female players parade the Hathiramani sports hall for what turned out to be a festival of Table Tennis. Our spot light was on the junior players who participated in the World and African Junior Cadets competition held in the Trust Emporium, in Accra Ghana.
The national under 21 champion, Emmanuel Ofori was one of the junior players who qualified from the group stages after two days of justifies. He played arguable the point of the justifies thus far when, he dispatched Enerst Mawutor Quarcoo by three games to one (3 : 1), in a match which was characterized by long rallies from both players.
Although both players have qualified for the second stage of the competition, the contest was fierce since the bragging right of who tops the group was ups for grabs.
At the female side of the draw was Matilda Fodu, who also took part in the ITTF World and African Juniors Championships. A heavy underdog, who found herself in a group filled with senior players.
Possessed with the desire to achieve Matilda qualified out of her group as the third best player. The highlight of her performance was when she defeated Linda Anoh a seasoned contender and a player who has traveled with the national team on several occasion by three games to one (3:1), in a keenly contested match.
The second stage of the justifiers resumes on 10th – July 2019 and concludes on the 12th – July 2019. It’s a round robin stage, which includes the top 16 male and top 9 female players in the country.
Will the status quo remain? Or we are going to see a new set of players don the national colors. The current male national team players who represented Ghana in the Common Wealth Games, made up of Bernad Joe-Sam, Derek Abrefa, Felix Lartey and Emmanuel Asante and the female national team players made of Celia Baah Danso and Cynthia Kwabi have all qualified out of the group stage.
Felix Lartey, has represented Ghana at the international stage, for more than a decade. He is in fine form and still has the hunger to achieve and to don the national colors. A member of the team which won bronze medal in the last African Games hosted in the Congo. The highlight of Felix’s performance was when he defeated his long time friend and team mate Derek Abrefa by three games to zero (3:0) in a contest which saw both players qualify for the next stage of the justifies.
Emmanuel Asante is relatively new addition to the national team. He was part of the contingent which represented Ghana in the Common Wealth Games held in Gold Coast Australia. He is in the form of his life and determined to maintain his position in the national team. The highlight of his performance was when he defeated Bernard Joe-Sam, in a thriller which saw him win by three games to one (3:1). This performance saw him qualify on top of this group with Bernard coming in second.
Join us at the Hathiramani sports hall on 10th to 12th of July 2019 for the second round of the justifies. The games begins at 10:00 am don’t be late for there are limited seats available.