By Treiston Joseph
Director of Sports Neil Kumar on Sunday evening said he was heartened by the progress of table tennis otherwise known as ping pong.
Kumar made the disclosure while delivering the feature address at the closing ceremony of the annual Mashramani table tennis tournament which concluded Sunday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
“We are happy to see the type of attention that table tennis is receiving and are heartened at where it is heading and the systems implemented by the new executive led by Commissioner Henry Greene I think he must be complimented,” Kumar told the gathering.
He also stressed the importance of former Caribbean Men’s singles champion Sydney Christophe’s visit back home.
“His visit was important because of the fact that he held a coaching programme and now we have about 20 trained Level One coaches and I hope that the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) will make sure we have more coaches,” Kumar stated.
While Kumar said the tournament was a success he pointed out that there is still more work to be done.
“We had over 160 persons participating in this tournament. We had 25 categories, we had approximately 25 schools from around the country come to participate in this tournament but this doesn’t tell me that we are good enough because I know we have given out table tennis boards to over 40 schools and only about 25 schools participating, something is not right,” Kumar opined.
Kumar did though applaud the efforts of the new executive body of the GTTA.
“I would like to say that while we are giving trophies as an incentive to this tournament, it cannot be denied that the resources of the new GTTA to fund approximately one million dollars in cash prizes is truly an incentive, so players you have a right to have a vested interest in this tournament and I must say that this is a good start.
“I also hope that the children that received cash incentives don’t take the money and put it in their pockets but spend it on balls and rackets for their school, for those who do it congratulations and stay in the game of table tennis,” the Director of Sport said.
Kumar congratulated the winners and players before leaving to attend a function organized by the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA).
