Kampala — VETERAN Paul Mutambuze took his table tennis dominance to the region by downing Ethiopia's Luke Bekele 3-2 in the final of the East African Open in Nairobi.

The 50-year-old Mutambuze, who a fortnight ago lifted the Uganda Open championship title at Syttac Hall, found himself at the losing end after going down 11-7 in the first game of the final.

He however took the next two games 11-1, 11-8 and victory looked to be on his door step in the fourth set, which he was leading at 9-7 before Bekele forced a deuce and went on to win it 14-12.

Mutambuze regained composure to take the decisive game 11-9 and claimthe regional championship. Mutambuze then combined with Jackson Migadde and Edward Kiwanuka to lead Fotogenix to victory after they beat another Ugandan team Sekanolya, that had Kevin Mafabi, Dan Kajubi and Sam Maina in three straight sets at the annual tournament.