Table tennis body eyes development programme

…after cadet tourney

After placing third overall in the fourth Caribbean Cadet Table Tennis tournament, the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) wants to pursue a development programme to get on par with the top Caribbean countries.

Team Guyana poses with their spoils after returning from the cadet table tennis tournament in Barbados.
Team Guyana poses with their spoils after returning from the cadet table tennis tournament in Barbados.

GTTA General Secretary Godfrey Munroe noted yesterday at a press conference at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) that the Guyanese racquet wielders had performed creditably but there is need for more exposure.

He pointed out that Puerto Rico players are attending schools that have table tennis programmes in place.

“The investment ensures that they have players that would have played in previous tournaments. This performance also highlighted what we as an organisation need to do to get our players to the top of the table in more categories and I think one is honing the talent from a much younger age for the age group categories and secondly we need to change our training structure,” Munroe said.

Munroe, a former national champion, said that Elishaba Johnson, Kyle Edgill and Rajiv Muneshwer, a debutant in the under-10 category, had played unbeaten throughout the team competition, defeating players from the winning Puerto Rico team and runners-up Dominican Republic to win the gold medal.

And with such promising results, Munroe said, these players deserve a chance to have more “rigid training and exposure” that will be conducted at least three days every week. And the GTTA executive body is to meet to discuss ways to improve their performance.

Regarding exposure, the general secretary said that the association wants to attend the US Open Cadet tournament in November and the South American Championships in Venezuela in October.

Munroe observed that the association would likely be more in favour of the US Open since it seems to have a higher level of play and more variety of playing styles.

On the other hand, Munroe said that the association is pleased with the performance of the team, with many debutants on the squad particularly in the under-13 categories.

However, he acknowledged that there can be more improvement once systems are put into place for the desired result.

Munroe stated, “I think the success could be measured in the fact that all the stronger teams within the Caribbean region went to the championship which included Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. We would like to have this current crop of players exposed to a higher level of coaching, which we (GTTA) will be liaising with the Ministry of Sport to acquire, along with using the more senior players in Guyana to work with the young talents.”

Johnson and Edgill received bronze medals for the male under-10 category while Priscilla Greaves got bronze on the distaff side. Chelsea Edgill and Akila Wiltshire received bronze doubles and Johnson and Greaves got a bronze medal in the mixed doubles under-10 category.

Munroe spoke of the under-13 boys: “I think the under-13 boys, most of them were debutants, the experience and engagement in the tournament will serve to harden them and give them a level of focus and outline to them the type of work that is required to play at that level because it is in the age group level that the gap in terms of skill starts to show.”
The tournament was held in Barbados from August 16-22 and the team returned last Saturday and Sunday.

Caption: Team Guyana poses with their spoils after returning from the cadet table tennis tournament in Barbados.