Record turnout at junior table tennis event 

The third tournament in the Arysteq/Simonis Storm Schools Table Tennis Series saw a record turnout of 79 participants at the Wanderers Sport Hall on Saturday.

This included 27 junior girls and 52 junior boys, representing a 35% participation rate for junior girls, aligning with international guidelines to increase woman’s participation in the sport.

Notably, St Joseph’s Primary School from Rehoboth participated for the first time this year, contributing 22 entries and introducing new developing players to the game.

Kamrouz Ghayouri (14) of St Paul’s College was the star player of the tournament, winning gold medals in the under-19 and under-17, as well as under-15 categories.

The silver medallists were Caden Bosman of DHPS in the under-19 category, Agaoe Chicalu of St Paul’s in the under-17 category, and Fillemon Ikanda of Olof Palme Primary School in the under-15 category, who notably beat Chicalu in the semi-finals.

Nathanael Dayelai of Olof Palme Primary School won the gold medal in the under-13 category after beating Daniel Beukes of Orban Primary School in the final, while Terence Kadandara of St Paul’s continued his dominance in the under-11 category after beating Tangi Haufiku of Olof Palme in the final.

In the girls’ competitions, Liàn Gebauer of DHPS won both the under-19 and u17 titles after beating Justina Namupolo of Hage Geingob High School in the under-19 final and Karolina Shigwedha of Ella du Plessis in the under-17 final.

Shigwedha won the under-15 title after beating Cadence Farmer of St Paul’s in the final, while Ester Nelenge of Olaf Palme won both the under-13 and under-11 titles after beating Sylvi Ikandi of Hillside Primary School in both finals.

Tournament organiser Theo Beukes says the event was a resounding success.

“This is the biggest turnout ever, so its growing every year and we are very excited,” he says.

“At the end of the season the series winners will receive prize money, so its becoming very competitive now. The children need to accumulate points throughout the series, so you need to perform at each tournament to win the prize money,” he says.

Beukes says the series had unearthed some talented young players who had gone on to represent Namibia.

“Through this series we have unearthed some great talents – we have two players, Justina Namupolo and Karolina Shigwedha, who actually developed from scratch, and within two years they have now reached the national under-15 team. They played in Botswana, and in July they will be playing in the Region 5 Youth Games.

“We also have two junior boys and two junior girls who are in the senior national team, so you can see the huge impact that this series has brought to table tennis,” he says.

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