Christophe to conduct Level One coaching course

Former national men’s singles champion Sydney Christophe who recently received the ITTF/IPC Level One Coaching Certification will be in Guyana later this month to conduct a course for local table tennis coaches.

This was disclosed by president of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Henry Greene.

Sydney Christophe

The GTTA and Christophe have been involved in discussions pertaining to Christophe carrying out a Level One course here.

Greene, Thursday night told Stabroek Sport that the association had reached an agreement with the former Caribbean men’s singles champion, adding that Christophe is due here February 18.

The course is expected to get underway on February 19.

Christophe, who migrated in 2005, was one of  11 United States of America Table Tennis Association (USATT) coaches who earned the ITTF/IPC Level One  Coaching Certification last year.

The course was conducted by ITTF Executive Director for Development Glenn Tepper.

Christophe, who is head coach for the AYTT in New York, is the eighth USATT Coach to be added to the ITTF Coaches’ Registry.

Meanwhile, Greene said the GTTA has also scheduled consecutive weekends of coaching ahead of a proposed Berbice Open tournament.

Meanwhile, today from 10am at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School, former three-time national men’s singles champion Colin France and recent Level Two ITTF coach Ray `Copter’ Anderson will conduct coaching sessions for interested players in the area.

Anderson will return next weekend along with national player Andrew Daly for further sessions.

Daly is an Olympic Solidarity table tennis coach having successfully completed courses under Peter Mc Queen and Roman Plese.

The GTTA in its effort to rebuild a strong table tennis base is focusing its efforts on the Berbice area which in the past has produced a number of top racquet wielders in Anand Sookram, Doreen Chow-Wah,

Desiree Lancaster, Evan Chee, Ray Hazel, Earl Thom, Colin Moore, the late Roy Fredericks and others.

Recently a team from the GTTA visited Berbice and met with representatives there with the stated aim of forming a Berbice sub-association.

They managed to set up a committee which is headed by Floyd Conway with former Mayor of New Amsterdam Errol Alphonso serving in an advisory capacity.