Guyana cops gold at NA Table Tennis c/ships

A talented contingent of table tennis players flew the Golden Arrowhead high as they secured gold and bronze medals at the North American teams table tennis championships held at Gaylord National Resort, Maryland, USA recently.

Gold medal winners pose after a job well done
Gold medal winners pose after a job well done
 US open bronze medallists
US open bronze medallists

The team of Thuraia Thomas, Krystian Sahadeo, Colin Wong, Dhanesh Persaud,  bronze medalist at the 2016 Caribbean Pre Cadet Championships held in Jamaica  August 2016  and Rolex John secured gold in division 10 which was an improvement from their bronze medal performance in 2015 at the same championships.
Guyana also secure a bronze medal with core junior players the likes of Khalil Ninvalle who is making a comeback in the sport, Terence Rausche, Abigale Martin and Selenas Jackman, in division 8.
Guyana was represented by a 37-member delegation comprising 28 players at different age group categories parents and Coach Idi Lewis departed Guyana on November 23to compete in the prestigious championships via a fly Jamaica flight. Fly Jamaica, through its General Manger Mr. Karl Bowen contributed significantly to making the venture a reality with significant rebates on air tickets.
The other team’s members had a great showing narrowly missing out on the medal position these included teams/players the likes of Elishaba Johnson, Miguel Wong, Sunil Logan Shavin Green-Linden as well as Maurice Cummings -Linden, Sheldon Atherley- Bartica Priscillia Greaves and Navendra Persaud, the team of Kaysan Ninvalle, Isaiah Layne, Niron Bissu, Yeudistir Persaud and Ty Dixon and the team of Tyriq Saunders, Nicholas Romain, Brandon Jaikarran, and Jamal Nicholas.
The US Open team table tennis championship has become one of the signature tournaments on the GTTA’s Calendar of events given its developmental nature. It is one of the biggest team championships in the world, with over 300 teams and 1000 participating players, the format of the competition /championships offers a wide variety of players, exposes participating players to both higher and lower ranked players with an extensive amount of matches (with an average of over 20-25 matches per player) which truly provides the environment to develop our players to the next level, In addition to allowing the association to lobby the International Federation for support.
This tournament is critical to the developmental thrust of the sport  in Guyana given that it serves as a provide exposure and as a nurturing ground to develop and   reinforce  the technical and tactical advancement of our players  game and is necessary and the pathway we must take if Guyana is to remain competitive internationally. Last year our teams exceeded expectation and won three gold medals and two bronze medals in the team events a commendable achievement given the level of competition
Guyana will play host to the 2017 Caribbean Junior and cadet table tennis championships and this engagement would serve to commence our team’s/players preparations for this event among other international tournaments.
The Guyana Table Tennis Association would like to thank the parents, sponsors, Fly Jamaica and its General Manager Karl Bowen, the United States Embassy, the government of Guyana members from the diaspora, the players and coaches, Sydney Christophe, Rawle Collins the organizers of the US Open and all who played a role in ensuring that 28 of our next generation of players were able to be given much needed exposure.  The team was managed and supported by Dawn Layne, Rhonda Greaves. Kennar Sahadeo and Ramesh Persaud, Hermouna Singh, Bibi Jaffar, among other parents who travelled as part of the delegation.