Table tennis wants more suitable venue

Table tennis, which won a bronze medal in the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games last summer, continues to long for a suitable training and practice facility that could also be used for hosting ping-pong events for next year’s Micronesian Games.

Currently, the Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association and its two dozen or so members had had to make do with the cramped quarters of the multi-purpose room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Aside from sharing it with judo and other sports, the development of national table tennis players is also being hampered by the low ceiling of the facility. In order, for ping-pong players to really thrive a ceiling somewhat like that of the basketball court of the Oleai Sports Complex gym is required.

MATTA president Steve Lim has long supported a move that would give his organization and its players a more suitable playing facility, but understands that the government is short of funds.

Asked what he thought about the recent $550,000 appropriation set aside by the House of Representatives for the construction of bleachers at the Oleai Sports Complex (Since then slashed by $50,000 by their counterparts in the Senate), Lim said he supports the outlay.

“As long as table tennis will be able to secure a gymnasium-sized—or slightly smaller— venue to host its tournament during the Micronesian Games, I wouldn’t mind the funds go to common use,” he said. “It is certainly welcome news, working on the principle that ‘something is always better than nothing.’ I tend to agree with the wish to apply these funds to constructing the bleachers and grandstand, although I would be utterly grateful if our sport were given a permanent and ‘ideal’ playing venue, which should be shared with badminton to really make it value for money” he said.

Lim went on to say that the 2006 Micronesian Games is the sort of sporting spectacle that requires a large crowd to give it life. He agrees that bleachers and the grandstand do enhance the spectator’s experience, “and at the same time make it memorable to the participants.”

In last summer’s Mini Games, Lim guided players Su Yong Dong, Budhi Gurung, and Lin Ying Cheng in a tie for the bronze medal with Fiji in the team competition behind gold medal winner New Caledonia and silver medalist Guam.