Table tennis training facility in the works

With Filipino table tennis players consistently competing on the world stage, it’s imperative that a world-class training facility be built to gain more qualifiers for high-level tournaments.

The Table Tennis Association for National Development (Tatand) recognized this necessity and will put up a table tennis center within Metro Manila.

“Our players are steadily improving and we have to create an environment where they can become world-class athletes,” said Tatand honorary president Charlie Lim.

Philanthropist and businessman Stephen Techico will finance the training center.

For the past seven years, Filipino table netters under the Tatand program have traveled to various parts of China to train with the best competitors in the country where table tennis is one of the most popular sports.

Two-time UAAP Most Valuable Player Emy Rose Dael of La Salle, Philippine National Games silver medalist John Russel Misal and 11-year-old Kaitlyn Cruz recently led a 26-man Philippine team in a pair of tournaments in Beijing where they also competed against collegiate Japanese players.

“We played against world collegiate champions and we managed to win several games,” said Philip Uy, another Tatand official.

Tatand’s initiative has been spurred by the improvement of Filipino players, highlighted by the qualification of the late Ian Lariba in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and Jann Mari Nayre, who narrowly missed a medal in the recent Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.