The Ghana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) on Wednesday, April 19, officially launched the 2023 WTTC West Africa Regional Table Tennis Championship at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.

The event which is open to 18 West African countries will be played between April 24 and April 27 at the Trust Sports Emporium, which is also known as the Bukom Sports Arena.

The GTTA accepted to host the championship despite a late notice as it looks to use it as part of the preparations for the 2023 African Games to be held in Ghana in March 2024.

Speaking at the launch of the championship, the President of the GTTA, Mawuko Afadzinu, says the team is targeting a better performance than the previous edition in Nigeria.

"We should be able to double or possibly quadruple our performance compared to Nigeria last year when we won one silver and one bronze," he told the media.

"We are going out confidently. The other beautiful thing about our team is the blend of generations with young and experienced [players] so that is a fusion of experience and youth which should pay out very well.

"We are looking at our ladies and gents being given the opportunity to try out their talent against the best of West Africa and come out top. We are pretty confident and hopeful and looking forward to Monday," he added.

Nigeria, Benin, Liberia, Senegal and Togo are among the countries to have confirmed their participation in this year's event.

The championship will also be part of the process involved in selecting players to represent Team Ghana at the African Games next year.

Players will have the opportunity to play in the men's singles, women's singles, men's teams as well as the women's teams.

The competition will also seek to award the first four players in each category with the winners going on to represent their respective countries at the Africa Championship which is slated for September 2023 in Tunisia.