By SANDRA MWILA –
ZAMBIA Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) will this year roll out a youth programme across the nation to develop the sport.
In a statement made available to Times yesterday, ZTTA patron, Haroon Ghumra said there was need to develop talents of young players in order to stimulate further growth of the sport at grassroots level.
“Table Tennis has a bright and promising future in Zambia and it is important that as an association, we build on the 2013 achievements and raise the standards of the sport to a higher level this year,” he said.
Ghumra said ZTTA would be getting more officials to be involved at every level of the sport to ensure the burden of organising tournaments was lessened.
He predicted the rise of table tennis because the Chinese government had sent experienced coaches to Zambia to assist in developing the sport.
“The Chinese government through the Foreign Aid Project have sent two experienced coaches Li Gongming and Zhang Guodong to conduct coaching programmes at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka for a year,” he said.
Ghumra appealed to the corporate world to render support to table tennis so that it could be propelled to new heights this year.
