Anyone conversant with the sport of table tennis would most likely know the legendary Paul Mutambuze, a two-time Olympian and winner of several international events.
Along with the likes of Mary Musoke, the 1992 Uspa sports personality of the year, table tennis enjoyed great success back then. However, the same cannot be said of the sport over the last decade, which has seen the one-time national pride descend to the periphery of Ugandan sport.
Administration wrangles, poor structures and lack of sponsorship have contrived to sink the sport. However, all that is set to change if the new roadmap by Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA) is fulfilled in its entirety.
Sunday afternoon found me at Kololo SS main hall, which was a buzz of activity as about 40 table tennis players took part in the recently-revived National Club League. They were split into teams of four and about five matches took place at any given time.
I could hardly recognise most faces apart from veterans Robert Jaggwe, Ronald Nyaika and Amina Namaganda. There were quite many youngsters in action, an indication of the sport’s fresh strategy of nurturing players from a young age.
Fan Yang, a Chinese national, stood out from the crowd. He has a club called Team Fan, which was exciting to watch on the table. However, Yang was no match for the locals as he lost all his three singles matches.
For one, Nyaika swept all before him as his Sekanyolya team ended the day’s session unbeaten. Jaggwe, who heads UTTA, said rebuilding the sport is a long-term process but his team has to start from somewhere.
“At the moment, we are reviving structures that made the sport competitive. The league is gaining momentum and plans are underway to have the schools championships ready for 2018,” he said.
“We also want to revive several defunct tournaments but, for now, sponsorship is our biggest challenge.”
Indeed, the sport faces a tall order to produce the next Mutambuze or Musoke but, UTTA has to start from somewhere. League actions resumes this Sunday at Kololo.
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