Table Tennis: Cameroon braces-up for tournaments

They are to take part in the first Francophonie table tennis competition, the Lagos Classic as well as the African championship in Morocco soon.

The year is going to be a busy one for table tennis athletes as they are to take part in three major international tournaments this year in addition to the traditional local competitions.

They will be taking part in the first ever ‘Francophonie Pongiste competition’, the ASPA tournament in Belgium, the Lagos Classic as well as the African championship to take place in Agadir-Morocco. The information was rendered public by the president of the Cameroon Table Tennis Federation, Alfred Bagueka in a press conference on Wednesday in Yaounde.

Speaking during the press conference Alfred Bagueka said emphasis will be laid on further vulgarizing and developing the game in all the nooks and crannies of the country as depicted in the organization of the Friendship trophy on the occasion of the Women’s Day on march 8th and the tennis tournament in a pygmy village on the occasion of the ‘World Table Tennis Day’. Effort will be made to take the game of table tennis to new areas while creating new clubs and giving out equipment to promote the discipline in Cameroon.

The president of the table tennis federation however regretted the fact that Cameroon will not be taking part in the Olympic Games in Rio since they didn’t take part in the African Games which served as qualifiers for the world sports jamboree.

Cameroon also had a chance of clinching a qualification spot during the Top 16 tournament in Sudan but the lone Cameroonian representative in the competition, Sarrah Hanffou, failed to make it. Cameroon also missed out on the junior African championship in Algiers.

He however presented a positive balance sheet of last year during which he said all the major competitions on the calendar of the federation were organized but for the Grand Prix Camrail which failed to take place because of the change in the management of the structure that sponsors the competition, Camrail.

Commenting on recent happenings in the federation where a club withdrew from the competition launching the season, Alfred Bagueka said the federation has taken note of the situation and the disciplinary committee will be meeting in the days ahead to decide on the matter.

He however stressed that the federation did not exclude anybody and that ASVUTT and Camrail decided to withdraw out of their own will. He declared that his ambition was developing the game of tennis in Cameroon, a game he fell in love with as a student way back in the late seventies.