ITTF Development Programmes Yield Positive Results In Africa – ATTF
The Executive Vice President in charge of Development at the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Andrew Mudibo, has lauded Africa’s deeper involvement in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)-led development programmes in 2023.
Consequently, Mudibo is optimistic that 2024 would be an important year for the new generation of African players coming through the ITTF developmental programmes to prove their mettle on the global stage.
“2023 was an added development block to Africa in terms of improvement in playing standards amongst the younger generation and also in the technical areas,” Mudibo said.
“This year saw the percentage of engagement with the ITTF development team going up from African member federations and this shows the urge to want to grow the sport in respective countries,” he added. “In 2023 we also saw many regional activities held in Africa.”
“2024 should see the regional bodies holding more activities that fall within their framework. This approach will tailor-make development activities that will uplift the growth of countries within the regions in specific areas and in the long run throw up strong players from Africa.”
The ATTF Vice President for Development highlighted ongoing courses for umpires, coaches, referees, competition managers. Mudibo said these courses should see an improvement in the numbers of participants who will qualify to be actively involved in major international events.
Mudibo also highlighted areas of focus for the game in Africa for 2024.
“An area where I would like to see development in 2024 is for each region to have a proper strategic plan and an active regional executive that works together in all matters within their regions,” The ATTF Vice President for Development added.
“I would like to see each region being able to create a database for all participants in their activities. When this happens, then development becomes easy as concentration will be on the development of the players and the sport.”
“It will be a targeted agenda and we won’t be second guessing. Development activities require finance to achieve a lot. I’m sure working with my colleagues within the African EC, we should finally be able to seek sponsorship both in kind and financially so that we can fund programmes in the continent.”
Mudibo added that with the appointment of Dr. Kweku Adedayo Tandoh as the new African Table Tennis Federation Chief Operating Officer, things are now falling into place and Africa should be a continent to watch out for in table tennis.
“In 2024 we should be able to have proper data on all participants in development activities and we should be able to start following up on each person who has taken part in any of the development activities,” he concluded.
Comments are closed.