by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Present for the gathering was Victor Hugo Mata, the President of the El Salvador Table Tennis Federation, alongside Juan José Gomez, the Manager of the country’s National Institute of Sport, always known as INDES being an acronym of El Instituto Nacional de los Deportes de El Salvador.
Also in attendance were Hector Daniel Erazo and Enrique Alfonso, Directors of the El Salvador Table Tennis Federation.
Notably a strong contingent from the host nation will be on duty; a total of 16 players will wear the colours of El Salvador.
The Women’s Team will comprise Emme Arias, Wang de Ying, Estefanía Ramirios and Monica Mendoza; for the individual events they will be joined by Keren Bolaños, Cecilia Orantes, Dinora Alfaro and Gabriela Romero.
Likewise the Men’s Team will be formed by Julio Calderon, Oscar Villalta, Samuel Alfonso and Oliver Mendoza; additionally Jaime Galeano, Job Martinez, Enzo Leiva and Harold Leiva will compete in the individual competitions.
Importantly, the tournament is qualification for the 2018 Pan-American Championship, to be staged in November in Washington, United States. The leading three outfits in each of the Men’s Team and Women’s Team events will qualify.
A total of 27 men and 23 women appear on the entry list in San Salvador; in addition to El Salvador the national associations represented are Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama.
Most significantly, the tournament will be streamed live on TVES Channel 10 from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May. Meanwhile, the Referee is Colombia’s Yoanna Ramirez who, prior to the event, has been in San Salvador for one week conduction Basic Umpires and Basic Referees courses.
2018 Central American Championships: Schedule of Play (Thursday 24th May)
2018 Central American Championships: List of Entries (Thursday 24th May)
