• Mutua, a physical sciences student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) alongside Josiah Wandera are assured of their places in the team to North Africa.
• "Compell is KTTA’s plan for Paris 2024 Olympics and we are not going to hurry her up," — Andrew Mudibo, chairman Kenya Table Tennis Association.
Kenya Table Tennis Association (KTTA) could recall Swedish tactician Jan Berner to guide the national team to the Africa qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games set for February 27 to 29 in Tunis, Tunisia.
The Swede trained Brian Mutua and Thukkar Sejal in 2018 ahead of the ITTF Continental Cup Africa in Nairobi.
KTTA chairman, Andrew Mudibo, said they are yet to arrive at a decision but Berner’s name has come up on several occasions.
“Brian (Mutua) is the only Kenyan who is closer to qualification and we think it will be better to bring him the coach who has handled him before. If we settle on Berner, he will be the head coach for the team,” said Mudibo.
Kenya will field four men and an equal number of women in the qualification showpiece.
Mutua won the 2019 Eastern Africa table tennis Championships last November in Jinja, Uganda and advances to the Tunis tournament as the regional champion.
The official indicated that KTTA intends to enter the 2019 All Africa Games line-ups in both genders with minimal changes.
However, Mutua, a physical sciences student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) alongside Josiah Wandera are assured of their places in the team to North Africa.
“We want to send a strong team to Tunis and therefore we will make few changes in the team represented Kenya in Rabat (Morocco). We have very young team and we need to beef up the squad with stronger players. However, residential training for the team is subject to availability of funds,” noted Mudibo who explicitly said 11-year-old Jenny Compell will be dropped from the team.
“Compell is KTTA’s plan for Paris 2024 Olympics. We are not going to hurry her up,” Mudibo said of the Moi Air Base Primary School pupil. Egypt men and women’s team of six players qualified for the Olympics by winning gold medals at the 2019 AAG. This allows the North Africans a maximum of two starters for each gender singles.