By kamyuka Keneth
Mbale Tigers Table Tennis Club (MTTTC) is set to host the Mbale Open of the year 2023, a tournament on its Annual Calendar.
It is slated to take place early February from Thursday 2 nd, to Saturday 4th, February, 2023.
Mbale Open is a competition held every year in the month of January as one of the beginning of year Competitions.
According to the official document that was released and signed by coach Jude Mutete as the competition Manager, This year’s Event will be hosted at the Namakwekwe Community Centre Hall from Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th February, 2023.
The tournament will have two categories to be competitive as a Single Event for both Seniors and juniors with both Men and Ladies.
“The Competition will have Singles Events for the Seniors (Men and Ladies), Junior(under 18 Boys and Girls) / Men and Ladies Team Events and Hopes(under 12 Boys and Girls)” stated as per the document released .
This year’s tournament comes with the prize money to the winner’s being being increased from one million shillings to One Million Six Hundred Thousand Shillings (1.6M) which is to be shared among winners from the different Categories.
The increment of funds came after the Executive Board meeting held at Demolez Kampala led by the president Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA) Jagwa Robert passed a resolution and agreed to raise the prize money to be given to the competitors.
Mr. Jagwa Robert is hopeful that this will help the players to work hard and even leave them motivated after winning valuable prizes.
According to Coach Jude, many people are interested in this game across the country and our neighboring countries like Kenya, Tanzania,Rwanda and other countries are soon landing in the City of Mbale .
“We hope this will motivate players and even make them work harder to win this tournament that opens our( UTTA) Calendar for the Senior players this year 2023”. Coach Jude noted.
The Chairman organizing committee, Tonny Bulenda thanked the executive Board of Uganda Table Tennis Association(UTTA) for the wonderful offer.
He says ,it’s the first of its kind in the history of Mbale open table tennis championship to get such support .
He also thanked Stanbic Bank and Northern Division Town Clerk Busiku Martin for their support towards this Open.
“This will attract more players from all over Uganda and neighboring countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda and also make the competition very tight”. Bulenda noted.
Mbale Table Tennis Club became the champions of the Mbale Open through Juma Wabugoya and Ritah Nakhumitsa who emerged as winners for both men’s singles and Ladies singles respectively.
So far, three teams have confirmed their participation in the tournament and these are Kitare of Kenya, Mbogo Table Tennis Club, Mbale Tigers Table Tennis who are the host and the defending Championships.
Awards
Winner – 400,000shs
Runner Up- 200,000shs
Semifinalist- 100,000shs.