WINDHOEK – The Namibian Table Tennis Association (NTTA) reached its objective of promoting table tennis as their annual Master’s Cup drew a huge crowd to the Wernhil shopping mall last weekend. The invitation tournament, which was created three years ago to promote the sport , saw the top eight players of last year’s ranking going head-to-head in the capital.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the huge crowd that gathered around the tables to take a look at the games. The interest of the public as well as the media that was in attendance was amazing. Also, all our promotional flyers were taken and we hope that we won over some interested players to come join our sport,” a happy Heiko Fleidl, secretary
of the NTTA said.
Fleidl rounded off a successful day by clinching victory in all his games.
Ramon Hansen and Fabian Tait had to settle for second and third place respectively.
The other players were Ashley Julius, Reinardt Stanley, Reinolt Schurz, Rudi Saunderson and Wayne Green.
“Everything just worked out for me and I’m happy to have won. But it is also important to note that the overall standard was much higher than the previous year,” Fleidl ontinued.
The NTTA now hopes to build on the success of the Master’s Cup and run a series of at least four tournaments that will be played exclusively across shopping centres in Windhoek. As such an undertaking is extremely costly, the NTTA is kindly asking potential sponsors to come forward to be part of this prestigious event.
Meanwhile, entries for this year’s double leagues have closed. A total of nine teams have entered. The league will be played over eight weeks. The fixtures will be based on a provisional seeding from the previous year’s results and the current NTTA doubles rankings.
The teams that have entered:
Theo Beukes / Melanky Farmer
Heiko Fleidl / Reinolt Schurz
Bjorn Wasielke / Fabian Tait
Rudi Saunderson / Ramon Hansen
Christa Mrozek / Reinhardt Stanley
Charles Cui Yunke / Johann Malan
Roger Beukes / Ashley Julius
Chris Joseph / Jonathan Sam
Wayne Green / Dietrich Mowes
By Staff Reporter