After several demands from the participants and their parents, the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GLTA) P&P Insurance Tennis Summer Camp, which is being held at the tennis courts of the Pegasus Hotel, has been extended for another week.

The camp was planned to begin on Monday, July 12  but was forced to officially begin the following day  after rains had flooded the tennis courts and forced a postponement. Conducted five days a week from Monday to Friday, the camp was scheduled to run for two weeks and should have ended yesterday. However when contacted yesterday, the event coordinator/coach, Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan, delightedly informed Stabroek Sport that after several demands the camp was being extended  for an additional week.

According to Ramdyhan, for the past two weeks the camp has been catering to the tennis needs of approximately 85 participants, with the youngest being 4 years old.

Ramdyhan said  that she was very glad to have the extra week with the youngsters. She said they had to compact a lot of things into the two weeks so she is now happy to be able to have the chance to further enhance those lessons.

“The things that we would’ve had to compact into the two weeks we now have more time with the kids. For the older kids we would be able to give them more information and teach them more technical things now that we have another week,” Ramdyhan stated.

She noted that they will take a more intense approach to the curriculum this week before holding a competition at the end of the camp to assess how well the players in training can handle themselves.

“So we will now be looking to put them through some more intense programme during this week and then we are looking at holding a competition to let them see what they have. It will teach them the competitive part of the game, so after teaching them we put them into the competition to see how they will handle themselves,” Ramdyhan stated.

The camp has been implemented for the past six years by the GLTA in collaboration with P&P Insurance Brokers. It is a part of the GLTA’s ongoing efforts to arouse the younger generation’s interest in the sport, and identify talent that could be further developed.

And Ramdyhan related that for the past two weeks the camp has been carrying out its objective most efficiently.

“A part of my job is to identify talent and one of the things that Mr. Panday likes to see is when we highlight this talent, and we have already done that and we are looking at getting them into a more constructive programme,” Ramdyhan added, referring to Manager of P&P Insurance Brokers, Bish Panday.

“And we saw a lot of talent in the smaller kids. From last week to this week I’ve seen a lot of improvement. We had like two or three of them that showed the potential, and a lot of parents are now looking to get their kids in the programme in schools,” Ramdyhan stated, making reference to the tennis programme that the GLTA has implemented in primary schools

The camp is divided into three categories based on the level of competence of the participants. The participants were categorized in  beginner, intermediate and advance categories.

The beginners and intermediate categories were coached by Ramdyhan and Nicholas Glasgow, while Ezra Sue-Ho and Jeremy Miller were the coaches in charge of the advance category.