Top seeds spice up table tennis in Jinja

Solomon Otti returns a shot against Gilton Chelibe in the final. PHOTO BY A. SSEMUGABI

Jinja- As the cool breeze swept from Lake Victoria into the Jinja Golf Club, just on the shores, Uganda’s table tennis top seeds were serving, chopping, spinning, looping and all that during the Jinja Seniors Championship at the weekend.

The tournament hosted by Jinja Warriors Table Tennis Club was the first of its kind in so many years. In attracting top seeds like Solomon Otti, Gilton Chelibe, Ronald Nyaika, Ronnie Andira, Kevin Mafabi, Steven Karamagi, Ludia Natunga, among others, embattled Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA) president Robert Jagwe and company sought to revive table tennis in Jinja.

Chelibe beat Glasgow Commonwealth teammate Mafabi 3-2 in the quarterfinals, defeated Nyaika with the same margin at the penultimate stage and completed the rout with an even better display against Otti in the final. “It was a successful tournament because almost all the top seeds turned up and put up a good show,” said coach Edward Koboyi, one of the brains behind this tournament.

“It’s a good beginning and going forward, next year we expect more numbers from across the country and possibly East Africa.” All the top four ladies and men bagged cash prizes courtesy of Deep Exim, the agricultural machinery dealers, who also provided the tournament table.
“We are very grateful to association president Jagwe for bringing table tennis back to Jinja. We enjoyed and learnt from the tournament,” said Deep Thakkar of Deep Exim, who also played. “We shall have more such tournaments here… as early as possible next year,” he added.

Commonwealth star Natunga, who came second to Regina Nakibuule, advised organisers to interest schools in various tournaments to boost talent growth.