Insufficient facilities and deficient concentrated training camps are major hindrances to the development of national table tennis players.

This observation came from Chinese national table tennis coach Cheng Jian Hua, who, at one of his training sessions yesterday, emphasized the need for a spotlight on the sport.

After a few sessions assessing the players Hua said that he had seen many of the younger players who had certainly demonstrated the competence to become world class table tennis players.

He said that he was particularly impressed by four players, namely Nigel Bryan, Christopher Franklyn, Michelle John and Matthew Khan.

Hua’s contention was that there was not much room for development considering the fact that there were only four tables being used for the training.

He added that there was also need for the players to be allotted more time towards practicing.

Hua’s last concern was the need for more ‘concentrated training sessions’ which he explained, entailed coaches devoting time to focus on one or two players to make assessments of their game and work towards correcting any flaws in technique.

However, Hua did commend the management of the sport locally and added that much attention had been given to players which he said he hoped would continue.

When asked to compare the skill level of the top local players with those in China, Hua said the Guyanese players would rank somewhere on the municipal (city) level in China, which was the third highest level of play, superseded only by the provincial and national levels.

Hua is on a one-year stint to Guyana. He is the second Chines coach to visit Guyana in three years following two one-year stints by Zhou Ping in 2003/4 and 2005/6.