Mario Alvarez, the several-times Central American table tennis champion, is working to develop a new generation of Dominican table tennis champions, as reported in Hoy newspaper. As many of the state-of-the-art facilities built by the government for the 2003 Pan American Games at the Parque del Este lie in various states of abandon, Alvarez’ Table Tennis Academy at the park has seen the most activity over the past four months. “I don’t know if the construction of the other sports facilities were good or bad, but I am convinced that the table tennis pavilion will not be too big for the sport,” he told Hoy newspaper.
Alvarez said that a year ago in the National District and Province of Santo Domingo, there were no more than 10 ping pong players in all, while today there are 71 registered. He is convinced that in five years’ time, the academy will supply the next champions to the national table tennis team. He said in addition to international coach Jim Fu, they have on staff the best table tennis coaches in the country.