The cream of Cambodia’s ping pong players gathered at Dambol Touk Hall of the National Sports Complex yesterday morning for the start of the 2011 National Table Tennis Championships. The annual event organised by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is set to run until Friday, with 89 male and 30 female participants hailing from 15 clubs across the Kingdom signed up to compete, according to Sun Sothearith, General Secretary of the Cambodian Table Tennis Federation. Sun Sothearith noted that numbers were up from last year with an increase in overall standard. “What I am interested in more, is the increase in the number of young boys and girls competing. I hope that the competition this year will be well fought,” he said. TRANSLATED BY PANN RETHEA