All of Ghana’s table tennis team were eliminated from the first round of the singles event in the ongoing 13th African games.
Team captain, Bernard Sam has attributed the poor start to preparations compared to their opponents.
According to him, their competitors played in a series of international tournaments against top opponents, which helped them technically and physically outplay them in the singles event.
“The pedigree of the competing teams is high, they prepared very well by playing in a lot of great competitions around the world, so if you look at their speed and reflexes, it’s very sharp.
“Singles event is very difficult because if you are going to play against somebody, it’s one on one.
“Within the year, we only participated in the West African games but if you look at the Nigerians, Algerians, and Egyptians, they have played in all the competitions within the year. They went for the World Championship in South Korea before coming here, so they met top opponents unlike us,” he said in an interview with Connect 97.1 FM.
Despite the disappointing start, Bernard has assured they will end the competition with a medal or two from the doubles and mixed doubles event, which is their strength.
“Our strength is in the doubles, so we knew the singles event was going to be difficult for us. We are not down because we know the other events will go well for us.
“We usually struggle in the singles and do well in the doubles and mixed doubles event just as in the last African games,” he added.
The doubles and mixed doubles of the Table Tennis are scheduled to start on March 6 at the Accra International Conference Centre.
By Francis Hema