By SANDRA MWILA –
TWO budding stars have been picked to represent Zambia at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World championship after winning the Hopes Week and Challenge tournament held yesterday at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC).
Latifa Nalavwe from Ping Pong Stars and Mwiza Siame of Ngombe PTA School won the girls and boy’s events respectively used as qualifiers for the World Hopes and Challenge Championship set for June in Slovenia.
The 12-year-old Nalavwe won the girls category after beating Kim Hoareau of Seychelles 4-3 in a tight but exciting final with sets scores of  9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 17-15, 6-11 and 12-10.
To reach the finals, Nalavwe beat her Zambian counterpart Ruth Mutaloni 4-1 with set scores of 11-4, 11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 13-11.
In the boy’s category, budding star, Siame outshined Abraham Tembo from Olymp Africa to emerge champion after a 4-0 win with set scores of 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7.
The semi finals saw Siame beat Justine Kazembe from Olymp Africa in a closely fought encounter that saw the champion coming three sets down to win 4-3 with set scores of 11-13, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3.
Kazembe on the other hand beat Dylan Simeon of Seychelles in the semi final winning 4-3 with set scores of 3-11, 4-11, 11-3, 5-11, 12-10, 11-3 and 13-11.
And Zambia Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) patron Haroon Ghumra expressed delight with the players’ qualification to the World Championships.
Ghumra said ZTTA was happy that the programme of nurturing players at grassroots level was yielding results as evidenced by the two players winning the tournament to represent the country.
Meanwhile, Ghumra said the association will today host an Open ZTTA Invitational tournament at OYDC where 40 players are expected to participate under the supervision of ITTF expert Muhammad Atoum.