Youthful men’s team wing out for Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships
A five-member Guyana table tennis team left yesterday for the Dominican Republic where they will participate in the 59th edition of the Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships from September 4 to 9 at the Pabellón de Tenis de Mesa del Parque del Este Santo Domingo.
Members of the National Men’s team; from left Shemar Britton, Nigel Bryan, Elishaba Johnson, Kyle Edghill and Manager Linden Johnson along with Godfrey Munroe strike a pose prior to their departure for the Dominican Republic
The comprises national men’s champion Nigel Bryan, National 21 years and under Champion and Caribbean Junior Bronze medalist Shemar Britton, National Junior Champion Kyle Edghill and Elishaba Johnson along with national coach Linden Johnson.
In the absence of some of the more seasoned senior players in the like of national Men’s Champion Christopher Franklin, Mathew Khan who has a high ranking in the USA and has indicated his availability to the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) to possibly represent Guyana; Edinho Lewis among other players and based on resource availability.
The GTTA selected some our talented disciplined and brightest prospects to represent Guyana at this prestigious event, The central objectives and aims of the association in selecting this group was based on central premise of molding and positioning a them for the future, which is vital to creating a new nucleus of players who would represent us well in the future. (Succession planning and developmental), the association also felt that this can provide the opportunity start nurturing and transitioning the young players which can lend to developing and improving the competitive level in domestic events/tournaments
A key element of our participation in this tournament is that we would have the players selected participate in the under 21 category where we feel that their prospects for medals are very high
Further of critical importance is that the championships will be used to assign world ranking to players in the Caribbean for the first time in the history of the championships which is critical to our success in future tournaments.
The team will be missing some of its prospects for medals in a veteran player in the 45 years and over category and the women’s team who are former the Caribbean women’s team runner, the likes of Chelsea Edghill Caribbean 21 years silver medalist due to her scholastic commitments, Trenace Lowe Caribbean Team Silver medalist and women’s doubles gold medalist in addition to Natalie Cummings who is currently in Brazil training on a scholarship engagement.
Eight countries have confirmed their participation in the event Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica host Dominica Republic, Puerto Rico Curacao Guyana and St Lucia.
The members of the team selected has been practicing twice daily in preparation for these championships for the last month.
President of the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe who sent the team off from the National Gymnasium wished the players well and told Guyana Times Sport that while the team is not at full strength it is a good investment in youth.
The team will commence its quest for honors today when the team events begin followed by the doubles and will wrap up with the singles events on September 9.
The team is scheduled to return on September 10, 2016.
