Only Bronze So Far For Ghana

Ghana recorded her first bronze medal in the boys Under-21 team event at the ongoing 13th Africa Junior Table Tennis championships which end at the Sports Hall of the Accra Stadium on Sunday.

London-based Solomon Akunnor, Nana Yaw Boateng and David Carboo who represented Ghana in that event were forced to settle for the third position after failing to go past Nigeria and Egypt.

Ghana's Nana Yaw Boateng proved to his numerous fans that he is a force to reckon with when he came from behind to beat his Egyptian counterpart 3-2 at the semi-final stage of the event. Egypt's top seed led Boateng 2-0 but he did not give up the fight until he won the match.

Before that crucial match, Ghana's Solomon Akunor had already called off the bluff of Egypt's Youssef to lead Egypt 2-0, and needed to win a match to ensure a final berth, but unfortunately David Carboo lost the decisive match to Egypt.

For over forty years now Ghana has ranked third after Egypt and Nigeria. Notwithstanding that fact, hosting was deemed an opportunity to break that jinx.With regard to the female teams' events, there is nothing to write home about the Ghana?s contingent as they lost almost all their crucial matches to their opponents.

Host nation, Ghana, started the championships on a wrong footing that saw her recording one problem after the other, a situation which could mar her ambition in relation to the otherwise historic event.

The nation was slapped with her fisrt disappointment when the Under-18 boys team was disqualified for disobeying the rudiments of the competition by fielding an unqualified player, coupled with power failure, which brought the tourney to a standstill for over 30 minutes.

In an interview, the president of the Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Mr Cherif Hajem, disclosed to the Graphic Sports that he was not satisfied with the organisation of the host nation. "I must confess that I am disappointed because the signal I get from the happenings convince me that Ghana was not prepared for the hosting," he said.

He added, "The oganisation is not the best, and it appears your government is not financially backing the Ghana Table Association (GTTA). Even though Ghana is hosting this tournament, they always want to fall on us for financial assistance which are not the rules of the ITTF".

He explained that any country that hosts such tournaments is expected to finance everything with her own resources after which the ITTF refunds the money, based on the expences made during and after the competition.

Mr Hajem, who is also the Vice President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), said the Sports Hall, where the events are taking place, does not qualify to host such competitions.

He said the hall does not measure up to the international standard because it could only take six tables instead of the expected 12. "The ITTF rules require that the size of a table tennis competition hall should be 7x14 and not 6x12 as Ghana's hall was measured," he explained.