Hussein to represent Guyana at Pan Am Paralympic Table Tennis Championships

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has secured a qualification spot for Gibrain Hussein, and he will be representing Guyana at the 2019 Pan American Paralympic Table Tennis Championships, scheduled for August in Lima, Peru.
Hussein’s qualification spot was confirmed when the GTTA received correspondence from Pablo Perez, Head of Para Table Tennis and Executive Vice President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) with responsibility for Para Table Tennis, who positively responded to the GTTA’s requested petition for a wild card application.
Hussein, with ID 3728, has been playing tournaments in the United States and other competitions in 2018 with a goal of trying to improve his world ranking so he can gain qualification at international events. His highest world ranking at level 10 was 38.

The national paralympic awardee and prominent certified ITTF level two coach, who has been working on several youth development programmes in Berbice, was very elated by the news. He had made many attempts to gain qualification to numerous other para-events, but was hampered by the delay in establishment of the Guyana National Paralympic Committee.
With regularisation of Guyana’s National Paralympic Committee, headed by Wilton Spencer, the way has now been paved for Guyana’s Paralympic athletes to participate in international Paralympic activities, and it has now become mandatory that they feature at these games.
The discipline of table tennis has seen recent dramatic growth in participation numbers, with 2000 athletes representing more than 100 different countries currently active globally.
The ITTF took over the governance of Para Table Tennis in what was a pioneer move in 2007. According to the Association, a lot of work has been done to improve many areas of the game, such as educating coaches and officials, and developing the players themselves.
They believe there is a bright future for Hussein and for future Paralympic table tennis athletes who aspire to commence the journey of representing Guyana and inspiring other Para Athletes in Guyana.