29 Jul 2019

Staged from Friday 12th to Friday 19th July at National Sports Centre, the Instituto Nacional de los Deportes, always known by the acronym, Indes; San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, was the home for the recent Central American Hopes Week.

A total of six boys and three girls attended; in addition to the host nation, players travelled from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama.

by Dora Jeler, High Performance & Development Operations Manager

Assisted by eight coaches from the countries in attendance, of whom three were female, matters were conducted under the direction of Noema Mena de Vila.

El Salvador has extensive experience in the organisation of regional, and continental events, notably each year since 2005 having held an ITTF World Junior Circuit tournament.

“There were days of hard training, where the athletes gave their best in each session and showed interest in learning,” Noema Mena de Vila

True to tradition the national federation welcomed the most promising young players from the region, making the children feel at home. Throughout attention was paid to technique; players and coaches all working in unison to achieve the desired goals.

Noema Mena de Vila explains (Photo: courtesy of Noema Mena de Vila)

 

Each day a detailed programme was arranged, the schedules very much receiving the approval of the all coaches present, who in their home associations all worked predominantly in the Hopes age group. The efforts of Noema Mena de Vila were most well received, notably the host association gave a vote of thanks at the conclusion of proceedings. Likewise Guatemala’s Madelin Salazar and Marlon Rivera from Honduras were most appreciative.

“There was an excellent integration of all the participating coaches.” Madelin Salazar

“The planning of the training was excellent and there was a logical sequence in the exercises.” Marlon Rivera

Matters concluded with a tournament, the outcome being that Guatemala’s Ian Morales and Andrea Moscoso alongside Panama’s Ian Mock and El Salvador’s Nicolle Gonzales qualified for the Continental Hopes Week and Challenge.

The qualifiers for the Continental Hopes Week with (right) Noema Mena de Vila (Photo: courtesy of Noema Mena de Vila)
High Performance and Development El Salvador