Digicel continued its support for sports locally by donating uniforms and travel allowance to the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GLTA) yesterday at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.
A team from the GLTA will leave today for Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the preliminary round of the World Junior Tennis Championships which runs from March 29 to April 3.
This is the first time the preliminary round will be held in the Caribbean and the team has gone through rigorous training for nine weeks in preparation for the championship.
Twelve players were initially selected and this was broken down to five after a nine week training programme which was held at Everest, GBTI and Pegasus.
Two of the five players have already departed for Trinidad to take part in the IBM championships and the remaining three will leave today with the coach of the team, Ezra Sue-Ho.
President of the GLTA, Christopher Ram will leave on Sunday to attend meetings with other regional tennis association presidents.
Ram will also be in discussions with Anthony Jeremiah, the International Tennis Federation Development Officer for the Caribbean, as he plans on mobilizing whatever resources he can and network with other tennis associations in order to push tennis in Guyana.
These discussions will also be aimed at specific issues hindering the development of local tennis and Ram will also be organizing a training programme for local coaches between May and June of this year.
Ram thanked Digicel for their willingness to support the GLTA and he acknowledged the efforts of the local tennis moms who raised $560,000 in aid of the team’s trip to Trinidad.
He also expressed gratitude to Everest, GBTI and Pegasus for making their facilities available for training over the nine-week period.
Digicel’s Public Relations and Events Manager, Shonnet Moore said: “Digicel is confident that Guyana’s junior team will be successful at the preliminary in Trinidad and the company is very happy to support the GLTA and they will continue to support the development of sports in Guyana.”