by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Notably she visited five training centres for the disabled; the destinations being Dhanghadi, Dang, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Kathmandu.

Furthermore, it was an eye opening experience; the standard of play, the quality of the coaching taking place plus the high level of enthusiasm quite stunned the welcome guest.

“It was a wonderful experience travelling to all these places. The stakeholders and the officials in the districts were very welcoming. Furthermore, the coaches were very dedicated. They had all passed Level One or Level Two ITTF courses that were organised in the previous years. The players have training six training sessions per week. You can see that some of them are very talented”. Sarah Hanffou

In each centre, tournaments were organised and equipment was donated by Ping Sans Frontières

“Meetings with the All Nepal Table Tennis Association and the Nepalese Disabled Table Tennis Association were also on the agenda. They shared their analysis of the project with the project co-ordinator, M. Deepak KC. It was also the occasion to talk about the next World Table Tennis Day during which tournaments will be organised in each centre.” Sarah Hanffou

A most worthwhile visit to a nation that is on the road to recovery; it is now approaching three years since the country suffered a major earthquake on Saturday 25th April 2015; it is estimated that as a result 9,000 inhabitants died, some 22,000 injured.

Sarah Hanffou (left) with (right) the Women’s Singles champion in Biratnagar (Photo: courtesy of Sarah Hanffou)