Hana Goda is a young Egyptian rising star in the world of table tennis whose career is now stacked with numerous achievements and titles, the latest of which was the 2019 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) tournament where Goda claimed first place in the categories Cadet Teams U15, Double Cadet U15 and Single Cadet U15.
At the championship held in September, Goda played 10 matches, among which she lost in only four rounds and won seven matches with scores of 3-0, two matches 3-1 and one match with scores 2-3.
In the same championship, Goda astonished audiences with her performance against the 27-year-old Zamalek player Farah Abdel Aziz, who is ranked the second-best African table tennis player. Goda defeated her 3-0. This led Goda to snatch the Egyptian women’s table tennis title.
She further grabbed a silver medal at the 2017 Swedish Table Tennis Championship. The young star was also named the top junior champion in Egypt under the age of 12.
“She is definitely a miracle,” President of Egyptian Federation of Table Tennis Moataz Ashour said of Goda, Al-Ain news outlet reported.
He said that there is a bright future waiting for the rising champion and that she is Egypt’s hope in the sport. She was selected by the international federation to be among the “Hope Team” sponsored by the federation.
He stressed that the International Federation is always keen to invite Goda to participate in international championships taking place in diverse spots across the world.
Goda participates in nearly 10 local and international championships on a monthly basis, according to Ashour, who said that a coach is assigned to accompany her at all games upon the orders of Sport Minister Ashraf Sobhy.
After her latest victory, Goda told several media outlets that she wants to play the iconic footballer Mohamed Salah, teasingly adding, “And we’ll see who will win.”
After a social media user mentioned Salah in Goda’s statement, he replied with a witty comment: “Can I send Makka to play you first or will I play you directly?” Salah was referring to his four-year-old daughter.
“But okay, I accepted the challenge,” the Liverpool Reds star added on his Twitter account.
Goda’s early accomplishments include several medals, among them the 2016 Algerian International Championship, the 2018 Tunisian Championship, and the 2018 African Table Tennis Championship.
“When she started her training, she was still very young, and of course, she was short. She was even shorter than the table itself, so the table legs had to be shortened to match her height,” Goda’s mother said during her interview with Women of Egypt in which she discussed her daughter’s early steps in the promising athletic career.
Photo credit: Hana Goda’s Facebook page
