The Namibian Table Tennis Association (NTTA) on Wednesday dispatched a six-man delegation to Zambia to participate at the Zone 6 Games which are scheduled to get underway today in Lusaka.
Rudi Saunderson, Wayne Green, Reinhardt Stanley, Darren Strauss and captain Heiko Fleidl make up the team while Dr. Yuri Vasin will accompany the delegation as the team manager.
The event was actually supposed to take place in December 2013, but organisational problems in Zambia caused it to be postponed. Nevertheless, the Namibian team, that came fourth at the last Zone 6 Games in South Africa, is well prepared and excited about the challenge.
“It will be tough, but we are looking forward to the challenge” said Fleidl, adding that another fourth place is the minimum objective. In total, six nations form southern Africa will compete at the three-day tournament.
According to Fleidl, the South Africans are the hot favourites as they are placed well ahead of the other participating nations on the world rankings.
“South Africa currently occupies the 80th place on the world rankings. Although that might not sound very good, one has to understand that there are more than 200 countries that play table tennis worldwide,” he said, adding that Angola was another possible title contender.
Team manger Vasin added that Namibian is currently ranked 118th in the world.
The tournament will be divided into three different events. In the team event each nation nominates three players that go head-to-head against all other countries in a round-robin competition. Besides that there are also individual singles and pairs competitions.
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