The Guyana Table Tennis Association in collaboration with the National Sports Commission will be staging its annual Independence tournament starting this Friday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The tournament plans to involve more than 50 players contesting 18 categories, including the heated men and women’s singles, and boys and girls’ under-18 which are usually the most entertaining.
Some of the country’s top junior players such as Trenace Lowe, Caribbean U-18 girls’ champion Michelle John and Caribbean U-15 boys’Nigel Bryan champion are expected to participate in the tournament and turn in their best performances.
When Stabroek Sport caught up with Lowe earlier in the week, she said that she would be pushing towards capturing the U-18 and women’s titles.
Lowe said that she would be trying to disrupt the see-saw pattern of winning when contesting John with back-to-back wins, following her dominant performance against John in Trinidad’s Silver Bowl tournament last month.
Meanwhile, John said that she would be looking to employ new strategies to have the upper hand against her most worthy local opponent.
There will also be fierce rivalries in some of the other categories among some of the top juniors such as Warren Hackshaw, Darwin Walcott, Tiffany Blair, Adeille Rosheuvel, Chelsea Edghill, Cheryl Duncan Elishaba Johnson, Jamal and Denzel Duff, Samuel Fraser, Dellon Mahadeo and many more.
Meanwhile, Gibran Hussein played undefeated last Sunday at the Skeldon Estate Community Centre, Corriverton to win the senior Open round robin finals of the Berbice Independence table tennis tournament.
Hussein got past national female player Vida Moore 3-2 and Yaga Doman 3-0 to claim first place honours. Moore secured second place after defeating Doman 3-2.
The juniors’ Open round robin finals was won by Sherwin Sahadeo who defeated Shazaad Mohamed 3-1 and Ian Bagot 3-0, while Mohamed defeated Bagot 3-0 for second place.
The tournament included 19 players, ten seniors and nine juniors, and trophies were awarded to the top three finishers in each category.
