By Kiev Chesney
Teams from across the region are psyched and ready to commence play in the 13th Annual Caribbean Junior and Cadet Championships which will serve off at 9am at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall today.
The first three teams to have arrived, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, wasted little time after their arrival in rushing to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall venue for the matches to have a `feel’ of the playing facilities. The three teams equally divided on the six tables in the cordoned-off area, trained for approximately two-and-a-half hours under the supervision of their team coaches before a blackout at the facility brought a premature end to the training session and sent some of the players back to the main Street Plaza Hotel with the team bus.
Hopefully the blackout, which affected some parts of the City up to late last night will not affect this morning’s play or the opening ceremony billed for 5pm.
Entering the largest contingent of the three was Trinidad and Tobago, with 15 players to compete in every category.
The Trinidad coach Dennis La Rose is Guyanese and trained some of the country’s top junior players in former Caribbean junior boys’ champion Robin Anthony and Jeremy Baddley before he migrated.
The Trinidad girls U-18 squad consists of Aveinelle Abrams, Kristen Spigio and Ashley Quashie who are ranked in that order, while Kadesia Abbott, Catherine Spicer and Krystal Taylor, along with Ambika Sitram as the reserve are the members of the girls’ U-15 team.
The T&T boys’ team boasts of a tough U-18 lineup spearheaded by Kenwin Small, along with Kyle Borneo and Leke Huggins while Khadeem Moore, and Matthew and Meshach Pillai complete the U-15 boys’ team for the Trinidadians.
T&T Team Manager Virgina Snaggs told Stabroek Sport that she was very confident of her team’s chances of medalling in every category as some of the top team’s that dominated in last year’s championship, such as Venezuela and Puerto Rico are not here this year.
“We expect our players to medals in every category, and we think our chances of doing this will increase once those tough countries like Puerto Rico and Venezuela do not show up,” she said jokingly. Snaggs also singled-out Guyanese Trenace Lowe as one of the players that she expects to have a good tournament this year, adding that she has seen Lowe play before and was impressed with her game.
Meanwhile, Barbadian team manager, Marguerita Felix said that her team was pumped and ready to compete since they have many young talented players that are anxiously waiting to step to the table. One such player is 10-year-old Antwonette Riley, who captured the gold medal in the U-10 category at the Junior Cadet Championships last year in Puerto Rico. The eight Barbadian players competing in this tournament are: Shane Norville, Ricardo John Treyvonn Powlett, Quintyn Carmichael, Lisa Collymore, Megan Steinbot, Nadia Payne and Riley.
Curacao’s Head of Delegation Franklin Mc Leod said that the seven players that have attended this year’s championships are relatively young, but he was still optimistic that they would be able to capture a few medals for their nation.
The players of the Curacao boys’ U-18 team are Micheal Dalnoot, Jovrick Monte and Karim Alders while the girls’ U-15 squad consists of Christine Dania, Geana Jacobus and Lydia Pietenella, along with reserve Evangeline Jacobus who will compete in the girls’ U-18 singles.
According to the assistant secretary of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Linden Johnson, two other participating teams, St. Kitts and Jamaica, were scheduled to arrive late last night.
Meanwhile overseas based Guyanese Jamal and Mustapha Abrams arrived in Guyana yesterday.
Jamal Abrams is a member of the Junior team while 10-year-old Mustapha will play in the cadet singles.
The two were accompanied by their father Shawn.
