The Ghana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) latest tournament on Saturday, November 26, 2011 was hot and classy with the 5th Edition of the D.G Hathiramani Memorial Open Championship at the Sports Hall of the Accra Sports Stadium. The championship was in honour of the late D.G. Hathiramani, a Chief Patron of the Association, who once singlehandedly promoted the development of the sport in Ghana.
The championship attracted the top notch table tennis players from across the country who vied for honours and the attractive cash prizes and trophies.
At the end of proceedings Celya Baah- Danso, emerged as the winner of the female division as she beat Cynthia Annor in the hot contest. National number one Felix Lartey aka Spider also thrashed all his opponents to retain his title.
In an interview with Celya, she dedicated the prize to all her mentors and advisors as well as all her fans. She noted that her training schedule was the trick as she really trained for the event and hoped to maintain the form to help Ghana at any international championship. According to the new winner who was the best Ghanaian performer at the recent All African Games, the exposure in Maputo was part of the motivation that inspired her to put up the unique show that thrilled fans at the sports hall. She thanked the national coach and the media for the exposure that gingered her to rise above all the opponents. "My target is to win the 2011 Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) award just like my predecessors who won and were honoured before national figures. I want to be recognised as one of the best players on the continent and this is the beginning of great things to come. I love table tennis, it is my life and I want to take this opportunity to appeal to the government to support table tennis. We have good players in Ghana. If we are motivated and awarded great prizes we shall see African and World Champions from Ghana" she said.
