Swedish coach Berner blames Kenyans’ loss on inexperience and poor ball placement

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Kenyan duo of Sejal Thakkar (women) and Brian Mutua (men) have been eliminated from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Continental Cup.

The Kenyans each lost their opening two preliminary round matches at Kasarani Gymnasium yesterday.

The three day event, which was officially opened by Sports and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa has attracted 32 top players from Africa.

The top two players (male and female) in the tournament will represent Africa in next year’s World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Unlike the experienced Thakkar, who lost all her first two matches by straight sets, Mutua gave a good account of himself on his major competition debut picking at least a set in each of the matches against the highly ranked opponents.

Thakkar fell 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-3) to seventh seeded Algeria’s Katia Kesacci before slipping to an identical 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-7) defeat against Bristol Christy from Seychelles.

Mutua then threw away a 1-0  lead to lose 3-1 (11-7, 11-6, 11-3, 11-3) against Congo’s Saheed Idowu in a match that lasted 16 minutes before putting up another spirited fight in his 3-1 (12-14, 13-15 9-11, 11-9) defeat to Cameroonian Derek Nyoh.

Both players couldn’t hide their disappointment as they dropped to the classification matches.

“I’m disappointed with the result, but I think I played a bit better than the first game though I lost some focus.  I think I was rushing to place the ball, you have to remain calm and composed to win more points,” said Sejal after her second loss. Mutua said: “I should have won either the first or the second game. I started well in the first game, but I think experience cost me while in the second match I recovered late.”

Swedish coach Jan Berner, who was with the players for less than a week before the tournament, blamed wrong ball placement, inexperience and rushed attacks for his charges’ early elimination.

“Sejal needs to find a powerful way to win points. Yes, she was eager to win points, but her wrong placement of the ball and rushed attacks cost her dearly,” said Berner.

“I think Brian played quite well, he used his attacks to put the opponents under pressure.”

 He deserved to win, but his opponents used their experience to outclass him.”

Sejal and Brian were due to face-off with Oshonaike Olufunke and Aruna Quadri respectively in the final Group matches last evening.