Dick Proud Of Hard Work Contingent Put In At Caribbean Mini and Pre cade Table Tennis Championships

By Timothy Jaikarran

At the conclusion of the 2019 Caribbean Mini and Pre cade Table Tennis Championships being held at the Gymnasium Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, Guyana emerged with three bronze medals. The recipients of these medals were Boys under 13 teams (Jonathan Van Lange/ Krystian Sahadeo), Boys under 13 doubles (Jonathan Van Lange/ Colin Wong) and Boys under 13 singles (Colin Wong).

In an exclusive interview with Guyana Times Sport when asked on the team’s success, Coach Dwain Dick said, “All three medals in one category is testimony of the work that these guys have been putting in. Tremendous improvement. Beating Puerto 3-1, Dom Rep B 3-2 and Jamaica 3-0 in teams. I hope we can have the support for them moving forward so that they can compete on the Latin America Table Tennis Union (LATTU) junior Circuit. Colin Wong who secured two medals still has a year more as under 13, for him to win preparations must begin now.”
“In terms of where we lacked I felt that for me even though all the games were closely contested. For me it was lack of exposure and competition, nervousness came because of inexperience in the big moments. They hesitated in critical moments and became tense, but technically we are there even better in some respects.”
Dick also noted that even though the tournament has concluded, the players are back at it again pushing hard as it is his belief that early preparation can be vital. Dick also went on to state that the Caribbean championships is just the first step in one of the many competitions towards elite performance. He is hopefully that the association can dig its head out of the sand and seriously come up with innovative ideas to incentivize clubs and coaches for producing and developing talent that meets high levels of performance.
The Titans as a club will be doing some scouting in schools and look at what is available in the club and will be running intense weekend camps as their goal is to develop young athletes and to see young people achieve their goals in the sport.