TABLE Tennis Jamaica’s week of celebrations will climax with the playing of the annual three-day National Championships to be held December 15-17 at the GCFoster College of Physical Education and Sports in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Godfrey Lothian, President of Table Tennis Jamaica, said the week of activities began with a church service at the Mountain View Cathedral of Praise last Sunday, which was attended in the main by parish affiliates, players, managers, coaches of the association, and resident from the surrounding community.

The tournament, Lothian says, has received some 206 entries for the various sections.

According to him, apart from the popular individual events, such as singles, doubles, mixed doubles in the Men’s and Women’s Open categories, there will also be the usual team events parish championships to be contested.

The following parishes are expected to participate in the team championships for males: defending champions St Catherine, Kingston, St Andrew, Portland, Clarendon, Manchester, Trelawny, St James, St Mary and Portland.

In the women’s team competition, the parishes are defending champions Portland, St Andrew, Kingston, Clarendon, St Catherine and Manchester.

Lothian added that the Men’s and Women’s Open individual singles event is expected to be the showpiece of this year’s National Championships, where players will be on the hunt to win the coveted and prestigious titles to become the number one players in the island.

He said there are also several major titles to be won where a number of the island’s top juniors players will be participating in various age groups.

Competitions will be for boys and girls in the age groups of Under-21, Under-18, Under-15, Under-13, Under-11 and Under-9, along with Rural men’s and women’s singles events.