4 Guyanese nominated to attend ITTF Hopes programme selection

Four Guyanese have been nominated to undergo the selection process of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Hopes programme, the world body’s talent identification programme, which unites players and coaches from across the globe. Those nominated are Ebo Mc Neil, Jasmine Billingy, Samara Sukhai, and Malachi Moore. The ITTF Hopes programme has been transformed into a virtual engagement, the ITTF Hopes Around The Clock activity.
The players will participate in a weekly virtual training session along with their coaches and ITTF experts, including ITTF High Performance Manager Dominique Plattner and ITTF High Performance and Education Director Massimo Costantini with a view of possibly being selected as one of the 20 girls and 20 boys who will benefit from the ITTF Hopes programme. The process offers the opportunity to progress to other high-performance programmes; interact with top players and coaches; and access educational sessions (strength & conditioning, sport science, nutrition and other relevant areas) among other benefits.
Online activities will form the main evaluation tool of the Hopes Around The Clock and will result in the selection of players for the World Hopes Week & Challenge. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating significant limitations on the ITTF being able to host Hopes programmes in the Region, the ITTF transformed it into a virtual engagement, with associations able to nominate up to two girls and two boys who are under the age of 12 along with their coaches, who commit to consistently participate in the programme. Players will be evaluated on the common attributes of their performance and attitude during the training sessions. In addition, attendance at the Hopes Around The Clock sessions will be a relevant element for final evaluation and selection.
Wild cards will be awarded based on players’ performance over all the online sessions and attendance at the Continental Hopes, if applicable. The first scheduled session is today, June 29 at 15:00h (3 pm). Coaches Linden Johnson, Idi Lewis and Shavin Greene will be connecting with the training experts for the first scheduled training programme.
The GTTA said it was appreciative of the support and patience of players during this challenging period as it worked to ensure the best opportunities and outcomes for the hard-working athletes.