Table tennis was introduced to Eritrea in end of 1950s by Italians residing in Asmara. In that time, all players were Italian. Nevertheless by 1960 many native Eritreans started playing the sport.Though table tennis gained popularity more in the seventies and eighties, many Eritreans were seen competing against Italiansin a short time in the sixties. Various competitions were organized in sport clubs and government institutions. Table tennis, a sport played indoors or in auditoriums became an entertaining popular sport.
Starting from nineties, especially in ZobaMakel, many veteran players coached young children in grass root programs in schools and administrative institutions. These grass root players were then organized into teams and individually and they started competing.
It is a widely known fact that in various schools and clubs teachers frequentplaying table tennis.
The National table tennis Federation of Eritrea, ina conference held on the 28th May in 2016, elected 4 female and 5 male members, in total 9 members. The executive body after putting its papers in order requested for Eritrea to be a member of World, Africa and East Africa table tennis federations.
The first elected members of the National Table Tennis Federation
A training program was prepared jointly by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and the National Eritrean Olympic Committee on the 28th May to 2nd June in 2016.In this training course, attendees included from all six Zobas, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Defence, Higher learning institutes, all in all 26 trainers of which 9 were female. The training which was up to international standards, was given by an Australian international trainer Mr Michael Brown. All trainees finished the course with satisfactory results.
Trainers training held in Asmara for the first time
Training being given by trainers from Tunisia
A letter of appreciation was presented to ITTF and Mr Michael Brown, for his endeavours in helping training trainers and his work in facilitating the acceptance of the national federation into ITTF.
The National Eritrean table tennis federation officially became a memberof ITTF and African table tennis Federation (ATTF) in the conference held in Düsseldorf, Germany on the 31st May 2017.On October 2016, the East African Table Tennis Federation and Eritrea as a member was established in the city Agadir, Morocco.
The National Eritrean table tennis Federation has planned to train athletes for the 2024 Olympics from the six zobas, providing trainers in the grass roots programs with equipments like racquets and table tennis balls. Competitions were organized among the grass root trainees from the six zobas, where the winners represented Eritrea in U-15 East African Championship in Addis Abeba, bringing home a bronze medal in the male's event and attained 5th place in female's event.
Activities carried out by the National Eritrean Table Tennis Federation since its establishment
Concerning competitions and courses held abroad;
In African table tennis championship hosted in Port Louis in Mauritius from 03-09 September 2018, Eritrea was represented by two competitors. As a result, we concluded that a lot of work awaits our players even though they were able to accumulatevaluable experiences.
EfremTekle and Yoel Michael participate in the African Championships held in Mauritius
In the East African Table TennisU- 18 Championships sponsored by ITTF and ATTF held in Kigali, Rwanda, we were represented by one male and one female players. As a result,in women's event we placed first, second in men's eventand won the championship in double's event. Additionally, Mr Simon Yemane, director of Organization and disciplinewas given Umpires and Referees award and he was also awarded for Tournament Organization.
Sara Mengistab and Yoel Michael in Rwanda
In the 2019, African table tennis U-21 Championship sponsored by ITTF and ATTF and hosted in Accra, Ghana from 07 April to 13 April, one player participated. Moreover, Eng. Ahmedin Mohammed Hagos, head of Umpires in the national federation, took part in training course concerning Organization and management of competitions.
From 21st August to 29th August, AU and ANOCA jointly organized All African Game in Morocco, in the table tennis competitions, men's singles, teams, double's mixed ( men and women) , three players and in women's double, mixed and singles, two players, with one coach, in total 6 people participated. As a result of the tough competition, we were not able to pass to the next level.
From 27th November to 30th November,ITTF and ATTF organized a competition where only 14 countries participated in Kampala, Uganda. In this 2019 table tennis championship as well as 2020 Olympic qualifying matches, two people took part, a female singles player and an organizer. But, unfortunately due to hand sprain, she was forced to walk away from the matches.
In 2020, ITTF and ATTF organized U-15 and U-12 Championships hosted in Addis Ababa from 11 March to 18 March. Additionally, a five day joint training in organizing competition among countries was given, on top of this our two trainers (one female) attended training for coaches. As a result, we placed 3rd in the men's events and 5th in the female's e