Christopher Franklyn, Colin France and Hewley Griffith will represent Guyana at a four-country Invitational table tennis tournament in French Guiana this week.

French Guiana here we come! From left, national men’s players Christopher Franklyn, Hewley Griffith and Colin France. The trio left Guyana this morning to participate in a quadrangular tournament in French Guiana. (Orlando Charles photo)

The tournament, which Franklyn says will be played at the Hall de Municipal in French Guiana (Cayenne) will commence on Wednesday and end on Sunday.

The other countries taking part will be Brazil, Venezuela and of course the hosts.

Franklyn described the team’s and his chances yesterday as “Pretty good.”

“I feel I’m coming into good form especially over the last week of training.”

France, a former three-time men’s national champion, said that Franklyn was playing well but added:”We have to try our best.’

He admitted that he has not been training much stating only:”I put in as much as I could.”

He was, however, quietly optimistic. “I feel we should do well.”

The third member of the team, Griffith, who  has benefited from a training stint in England says he has not been training as he would like to have had but said he  plans to take…”a good shot at it.”

This will be Griffith’s first international tournament where the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) new water-based glue rule will be in effect but Griffith says he is not overly worried about the new ruling.

He noted that the water-based glue was different from the regular glue but said he had been using the new glue for the better part of last week and had gotten used to it.

“It’s a bit better than I had anticipated, “he declared.

The Guyana team was expected to leave for French Guiana this morning and will return on Monday.