Table Tennis-Former Seychelles champion Vel wants to popularise table tennis |28 October 2004

Speaking to Sports Nation recently, Jimmy Vel, who used to be the country's number one male player in the early 1980s and is now working as a table tennis coach, said that his committee was placing emphasis on developing young players.

"Our main target for next year is to get the very good pool of young players we have right now to get to love the game so that we can work with them to develop good players," said Vel.

He added that the STTA will be using its budget to organise a number of competitions to help popularise the game here, so as to attract more young players.

Apart from the ongoing monthly league championship the federation has included a number of competitions on its calendar of events for the year which has already been drawn up.

Recently the association organised a competition for young players aged between 7 to 16 year-old at the Anse Aux Pins district administration which was also the sponsor of the one-day knockout tournament. A large and competitive field of players from Anse Aux Pins, Beau Vallon and Roche Caïman – 57 in total – registered for the competition which was played on a round-robin format.

The female open category was won by up and coming Annisa Benstrong who whitewashed Aisha Edmond 3-0 (11-5 11-6 11-5) in the final.

On her way to the final worthy-winner, Benstrong thumped Petrina Mellie 3-0 (1-5 11-6 11-5) while losing finalists Edmond made easy meat of Shane Bonnelame whom she beat 3-0 (12-10 11-0 11-3).

Mike Alcindor emerged as the male open division winner with a convincing 3-0 (12-10 11-5 11-7) victory over the much-fancied Jean Paul Fostel in the final.

To book his tickets for the final, Alcindor first eliminated Shawn Camille 3-0 (11-1 11-5 14-12) in the semis while Fostel ditched Jossel Cadeau on the identical 3-0 (11-2 11-4 11-4) score in the second semifinal.

C. J.