BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
FOLLOWING a period of postponed activities due to the pandemic, the Honiara Table Tennis Association has this year held a 3-days – Honiara School Table Tennis Open ranking competition for its affiliate schools in Honiara.
Honiara Table Tennis Association President Kevin Olea told Raw Sports that the Honiara School Table Tennis Open ranking competition kicked off on 4 July and ends today at the newly Honiara City Council Court facility next to Multipurpose Hall.
Olea said the competition has attracted the participation of primary, secondary, and tertiary students from twelve (12) academic institutions including 4 para-table tennis athletes in Honiara.
“We have student table tennis players (both male and female) coming from Solomon Islands National University (SINU), Don Bosco Institute, University of South Pacific (USP), Honiara campus, and various primary and secondary schools in Honiara,” he said.
The President said the 3-day competition aims to provide inclusiveness among athletes with special needs (physical disability) and able students as part of our preparations to equip table tennis talents ahead of October, this year’s table tennis classification competition in Australia, and Pacific Games 2023 in Honiara.
He described that 90% of students participating in the completion have undertaken their training at the Solomon Islands Institution of Sports (SINIS) and all of them are members of the Honiara Table Tennis Association.
“We believe much in our students undergoing high-performance training at the SINIS and we hope, they will also contribute to 40 Gold medals target for the country,” Kevin Olea said.
The Honiara School Table Tennis Open ranking competition ends today.
