Director of Sport Neil Kumar is offering to find sponsorship so the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) can stage the annual national championships.
The last year the championships were held was in 2001 when it was staged twice.
In January of 2001, current general secretary of the GTTA Godfrey Munroe captured the men’s singles title from defending champion Sydney Christophe.
It was the first singles defeat for Christophe at a national championships after he first won the men’s singles title in 1983, ironically when the tournament was also staged twice.
Then in December of 2001, Christophe regained the men’s singles title from Munroe at the Sprite sponsored tournament when the format of the singles competition had been changed according to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rules from 21 points to 11 points a game and from best-of-three or best-of-five matches to best-of-seven.
The championships have not been held since.
Kumar made the disclosure in his brief remarks at the presentation ceremony for the recently-concluded annual National Sports Commission (NSC) Mashramani table tennis tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Wednesday.
“I am going to find the sponsorship for us to run it (the national championships). I am prepared to find the sponsorship,” Kumar assured, while stating that the staging of the event requires immediate action.
“We must run off the national championships this year. I would like to see that the championship is held as early as possible,” he said.
Minister of Youth, Culture and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony had challenged the GTTA at the opening ceremony of the NSC tournament to ensure that the national event was returned to its annual calendar.
“I want to tell (Joel) Wilburg and Godfrey (Munroe) and (Linden) Johnson that this is your immediate task. You must have those championships off,” the Director of Sport stressed in his presentation.
Anthony was scheduled to deliver the feature address at the closing ceremony but could not attend because of an urgent meeting with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Kumar indicated that the IDB is in the process of providing the ministry with a substantial amount of funding for the development of sport in Guyana. He said that table tennis would benefit from the funding.
“I am making a very genuine effort to be here because presently we are having a meeting with the IDB, where they are going to provide us with a very hefty amount of money and funding to help in the further development of sports,” he told the gathering.
Kumar was critical of the visible absence of the senior table tennis players from the closing ceremony. He said that those senior players ought to play a more important role in such activities.
The ceremony began at 4 pm; but the fact that many of the senior players attend university and have full-time jobs were reasons advanced for their absence from the ceremony.
“This annual Mashramani tournament is a successful tournament but I must register my dissatisfaction of the fact that while we are here today I am not seeing the senior players. The senior players ought to make sure that they are here to participate,” Kumar observed.
According to Kumar, the NSC is making a genuine effort to develop table tennis. He said that the Commission is pushing the sport at all levels including schools.
“We are making a genuine effort to get the Chinese coach to return to Guyana and I am quite certain that very shortly we will be having the Chinese coach,” he disclosed.
Kumar told the GTTA that they would also benefit from two multi- purpose facilities to be built by the Ministry in Berbice and Essequibo. He also asked the GTTA to present a plan for the next five years.
