Luanda – Angolan athlete Hélder de Almeida was elected as secretary of African Zone 5 table tennis, during its assembly held in Gaborone, Botswana.
The event which is part of the 2023 edition of the Southern Continental Championship, played from June 29 to July 03, in the Tswanese capital, the head of the Angolan delegation received the confidence of representatives of the other countries.
Hélder de Almeida, who is the former president of the Luanda Provincial Table Tennis Association (APTML), will be at the centre of the sport's decisions within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Regarding the competition whose tournament is composed of 16 Member States, the national team, both men and women, came in second place and received a silver medal.
With this result, they qualified for the next African Tournament, which will be held in September this year in Tunisia, although they were defeated by the South African team in the final match of the 2022 edition.
Elizandro André, Edvane Neto, Domingos Manuel, Luís Mudil, Isabel Albino, Ruth Tavares, Kailane de Sousa, Eugénia Simões and Nelma Moisés, are the players who made up the team coached by Manuel Pimenta.
Besides Angola, the event was attended by representatives from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
Angola's results:
Men's and women's teams - 2nd place
Women's individual - 2nd place - Ruth Tavares
Men's individual - 3rd place, Edvane Neto
Individual Paralympic - 2nd placed, Nelma Moisés
VAB/MRA/jmc
