GOA backs Chelsea Edghill for Olympics with US$12,000 funding

By Jemima Holmes

It appears as though voicing her concerns weeks ago about a lack of support did the trick for Chelsea Edghill, as the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) today afforded her the opportunity to go into high level training ahead of her Tokyo Olympics appearance. This came on the heels of the Guyana Lottery Company announcing their sponsorship of the athlete for the next year, on Friday.
The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) is expected to expend over $12,000 USD on Chelsea Edghill’s Olympic preparation, following the players acquisition of a wild card spot in the games.
During a media engagement on Saturday morning, GOA President K.A. Juman Yassin made the anticipated announcement.

“The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) is very happy to be able to do a bit more for Chelsea. We were able to support the table tennis team in their quest to qualify in Argentina and now we are happy to be able to support Chelsea so that she could have as much training as possible, so that when she competes, she would be at a higher level,” Yassin announced.
Detailing the areas in which Chelsea will receive assistance, Guyana Table Tennis Association President Godfrey Munroe shared that they are hoping to give her the best preparation possible, in a safe environment, and have since agreed on Portugal, where she plays professionally at Lusitana Lourosa.
“One of the key areas, however, is that Chelsea’s club Lourosa, don’t have the amount of sparring partners, so, in discussing with Chelsea, we decided that we will need to advance her participating in a couple of more high yield centers in Portugal, which would be CAR, which is a national center, Portugal. And then there is Mirandela. We wanted to include possibly competitions for simulation, to ensure that she she’s able to have a feel of competition, because we know that just practice and practice and not without being able to play in competitive environments is not a situation,” the GTTA President explained.

As such, he shared the massive lists of elements the GOA would be taking care of, after their meeting and discussing the situation, “And in this regard, the Committee decided along with the President that we would support Chelsea payment for the training at the high yield centers, which would be for the two months, which is at Mirandela and CAR. We paid for physiotherapy and recovery sessions, the high-performance training, her physical training, her therapy and recovery, which would include aqua, including gymnastic, postural gymnastic, nutritional supplements, the airfare from Guyana Portugal and then back to Tokyo and concluding back to Portugal or Guyana.”
“And this would include her apartment rentals while in Portugal and her food,” Munroe added.
In the meantime, before Edghill returns to Portugal, her local coach Idi Lewis detailed her current training regimen here.
“For the remainder of her time in Guyana, what we’ll try to do is simulate the training she would do in Europe. Which is about six to seven hours a day, including a lot of multi-ball, a lot of tactical work, game simulation and in the evening, she works on strength and conditioning,” Lewis revealed.
On the other hand, as Edghill expressed her gratitude to those involved, the 23-year-old highlighted that it is a relief, not having to worry about the finances.
“I’d just like to say thank you to everyone at the GOA, the GTTA, Idi and all those who have been supporting throughout the years. Moving forward, I think its great the GOA has my back 100% in preparing for the games,” Edghill shared.
She further stated, “For me, it’s a great feeling not to have to worry about the financing and all I need to do now is focus on training. However, in the past, you know even though I was funded by my parents and what not, they ensured I didn’t have to worry about the finance part of things and it would just give me an ease, just to be able to focus on the task at hand, which is representing Guyana at the Olympic games.”
Chelsea Edghill will become Guyana’s first Table Tennis Olympian after receiving one of two Universality spots from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).