Located in the foothills of the Andes, noted for growing coffee, Pereira is the home for the forthcoming seven day South American Championships.

Play commences with the men’s team and women’s team events on Thursday 21^st July, in each discipline Brazil being the top seeds.

For the men Eric Jouti lines up alongside Carlos Ishida, Guilherme Teodoro and Rafael Turrino; for the women, the experienced name on duty is Caroline Kumahara, she is supported by Beatriz Kanashiro, Giulia Takahashi and Laura Watanabe.

The team titles will be decided on the second day of action, the individual events commencing with men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles on Saturday 23^rd July. One day later, the men’s singles and women’s singles events commence.

The name to note is that of Argentina’s Horacio Cifuentes, he occupies the top seeded men’s singles spot as well as in the men’s doubles with Gaston Alto and the mixed partnering Camilla Arguelles.

Chile’s Daniela Ortega and Paulina Vega head the women’s doubles order of merit, Caroline Kumahara in the women’s singles top name.

It is the first time Pereira, less than a one hour flight from Bogota, the capital city, has hosted such an international table tennis tournament; much credit for the initiative can be directed to local government support, in particular from Gustavo Rivera Muñoz, Secretary of Sports of Pereira.

“We are very happy to welcome all the delegations. We want to invite you all to attend the event. We want to invite everyone to attend the event and thus promote a sportier city, that is why we are supporting this great event with 64 athletes, the best from each country and the participation of 16 athletes from Colombia, most of them with great international experience.” Gustavo Rivera Muñoz

Four tables will be in use throughout proceedings, all events organised on the knock-out principle.