By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

PING PONG star Mubanga Kunda at the weekend beat her nemesis, Latifah Nalavwe to win the Magnum Securities sponsored Zambia Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) fifth national championship held in Lusaka.
Kunda, who has for long been stumbled at the last stage of the Under-18 category, this time kept her nerves to win this final in a five-set thriller.
After winning in the first set, Kunda went on to lose the following two sets and had to summon her energies to win the closing two with amazingly tight scores that saw each set go with the tightest of margins to win 16-14, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10.
To reach the finals, Kunda made easy meal of Andrena Kabimba with a 2-0 win while Nalavwe needed a third set to defeat Janet Mwelwa 2-1.
Mwelwa, after losing in the Under-18 category, went on to bully her mates in the under-12 category which she won after bashing Martha Mulenga 3-0 in a lope sided final.
She defeated Lombe Kasoko 2-0 in the semi finals while Mulenga beat Naomi Mwila by the identical score line.
In the boys category, Simon Mwando made it two wins from two tournaments when he defeated rival Jeconiah Lambe in a four-set final to take the boys’ under-18 title.
With a 3-1 win and scores of 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, Mwando made sure he was asserting himself in the Choolwe Hamalambo post era.
Both Mwando and Lambe took 2-0 semi-final wins over Mumba Nsunge and Gideon Tembo respectively.
In the boys under-14 category, Abraham Tembo also needed a 3-1 win to be champion when faced with Emmanuel Munga in the final after both took tough 2-1 wins in the semi-finals defeating Fred Mwanza and Zaninge Kaira respectively.
Wisdom Nyirenda won the Under-12 title with an easy 2-0 win over Hapson Munga while Chanda Muma returned to the table tennis fold with a 2-0 win over Kennedy Shane in the boys’ under-eight final.
For his efforts Shane of Yosofo table tennis club, was awarded with the most promising player award.