Botswana Table Tennis Association, (BTTA) will host their first post Covid-19 tournament in Gaborone this weekend.
This was confirmed by the association’s Publicity Secretary, Arthur Kgaswe in an interview with Voice Sport on Tuesday..
The tournament will be bankrolled by Phoenix Assurance Botswana with P16 000, which will be broken down into prize monies.
“The winners of this tournament from both male and female will get P3 000 each, while the runners-up will go home with P1 800,” said Kgaswe.
The BTTA Spokesperson further said both the semi-finalists and quarter finalists will each for their troubles receive P800 and P400 respectively.
Kgaswe went on to express his delight about their marriage of convenience with Phoenix Assurance Botswana.
“I’m grateful for our partnership with Phoniex, their contribution to the growth of sport has been immense, we started last year and now it has continued to grow beyond our expectations,” he said.
Kgaswe said they’ll observe all the Covid-19 safety measure as spelt out by the Task Force and the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
“All safety measures were followed as Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) hall is a training venue for most local table tennis clubs, so we made it clear that a hall can only accommodate 10 players at a time to observe social distancing. Each club is expected to have sanitizers, clean water and soap to ensure safety of the people present on the day,” he said.
The Publicity Secretary was quick to admit that the Covid-19 break is bound to affect competition over the weekend,” We might not see a very competitive tournament over the weekend as players have been on lock down, but we still expect them to show commitment if only to show appreciation to the sponsors,” said Kgaswe.