UTTA to revive tournaments
Jjagwe makes a contribution during the ITTF Level 1 coaching course at Kololo SS on Monday. Photo by Sande Bashaija
What you need to know:
Table tennis. The National Schools tournament will get the calendar rolling at Nabisunsa this weekend with more to follow.
Kampala. Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA) president, Robert Jjagwe, has set out to organise a tournament every month until the end of the year in a bid to improve the standards of the game.
“We need to get people, especially the young ones, playing the game,” Jjagwe, who assumed UTTA leadership last year, told Daily Monitor yesterday on the sidelines of an international Level 1 coaching course currently taking place at Kololo Secondary School. “In the past years, many tournaments were never held but that shouldn’t happen again. For the game to grow, we must expand the base of players and we can only get good players by staging several tournaments,” Jjagwe added.
The National Schools (primary and secondary) tournament at Nabisunsa this weekend will set the calendar rolling. Close to 30 schools are expected to participate in the two-day event starting Saturday. Thereafter, UTTA will stage the Mbale Open, Fotogenix Open, Chairman’s Cup and Diaspora Open.
The association boss is counting on the six-day coaches’ course, being facilitated by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) technical expert, Ahmed Dawalatly, to lift the levels of the game at the grassroots.
“After here, we shall send these coaches to work with schools countrywide,” Jjagwe revealed.
