Guyana’s Shemar Britton is now ranked 243 in the world, the Guyana Table Tennis Association stated yesterday in a press release.
According to the release, Britton jumped
205 places from his previous rating of 448 and is has now achieved the highest ever rating by a Guyanese player.
National women’s champion, Chelsea Edghill, who is based in Portugal, also broke the 300 mark with a 263 world rank position while three-time national men’s champion Christopher Franklin is ranked 538 up from 1750.
Also on the ITTF world ranking list are e Miguel Wong, Joel Alleyne and Jonathan Van Lange.
“These movements are based on recent results at international competitions and are significant for the sport. It testifies to the players’ sacrifices, dedication, commitment, abilities, talent and discipline,” the release from the GTTA stated.
According to the release, the players’ performances would not have been possible with the support of the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, the National Sports Commission, The Guyana Olympic Association and other private entities and public stakeholders who have supported and contributed to allow the players to participate in the engagements.
“For this we would like to publicly express our gratitude as we are looking forward to their continued support as we endeavor to maximize the potential and talents of our athletes,” the release stated.
GTTA president Godfrey Munroe, a former Caribbean Grand Prix champion and two time- national men’s singles champion lauded the performance of the players.
“The success also underscores the GTTA’s tenets grounded in a position to have our players participate in tournaments even with the constraints due to the and during the pandemic.
“We believe our players have the talent to surpass these ranking positions however what is critical is that we continue to create the environments for them to have the opportunity for regular exposure and training in view of developing their technical tactical physical and mental capacities as a base for sustained performance,” said Munroe.
Munroe said the players stood to make even more strides given the number of upcoming competitions and the system in place for the ranking of players.
“With the Commonwealth Games, Islamic games, South American Senior Games in addition to key world circuit events scheduled for 2022, and with the ITTF new world ranking position going back to a merit and performance-based system where players are rewarded for advancement in rounds of competition, given points for wins against higher ranked opponents with participation receiving minimal amount of points, will allow our players to make even more breakthroughs in the world ranking position as we seek to improve our performance trajectory,” he declared.
