by Simon Daish

Tahiti will be competing at a World Championships for the first time, after news was announced earlier in the year that the largest island in French Polynesia would join Afghanistan, Oman and Palestine in debuting at the event.

In an short interview reported on the ITTF Oceania website Tahiti’s Kenji Hotan has stated that he is excited to be heading to Düsseldorf but is aware of the big challenges that lie ahead.

“For me it’s already nice to participate at the World Championships. I don’t expect many wins, but I will be able to see some good table tennis players”, Kenji Hotan.

Hotan currently lives in the French city of Bordeaux and is studying pharmacy at university, but the Tahitian is able to make enough time to take to the table to train and play his club table tennis matches.

“I try to play at least three times a week… I am in Pre-National for individual and in my team we are in Regional 1”, Kenji Hotan.

Also set to represent Tahiti in the Men’s Singles category is Hugo Gendron and Ocean Belrose, while Brenda Lui and Tearo Le Caill will contest the Women’s Singles draw in Düsseldorf.

While it will be a tough task for the Tahitian contestants to go far into the latter stages of the tournament, the Liebherr 2017 World Championships will be a standout occasion for the players nonetheless and could provide the players with valuable competition experience moving forward.