By Iva Wharton
At, 20, after just over a decade in the sport of table tennis, Trenace Lowe has a long list of accomplishments that would make any parent proud.
Today, she is the current national women’s singles champion and Caribbean silver medallist after reaching the final of the Under-21 category at last year’s Caribbean Championships.
She has won numerous local and overseas tournaments most recently the Ladies Open Super Singles title in Trinidad and Tobago.
Lowe also recently broke into the top 50 of the United States of America (USA) TT ranking list at number 50.
The list of achievements is endless.
But, instead of basking in her achievements or resting on her laurels, `T Lo’ as she is popularly known, is hungry for more success.
The talented southpaw has her eyes set on qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games and has been nominated by the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) for one of the five wildcard spots allotted to the Guyana Olympic Association(GOA).
“The GOA has five spots. The GTTA was given one and they have sent up my name to see if I will qualify,” Lowe told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Lowe is determined to qualify for the Olympics and not leave things up to chance.
“I want to go to the Olympic Trials in March in Brazil,” she said, explaining that the tournament, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, starts on March 1 and ends March 7.
Lowe explained that the one-week long tournament encompasses the Latin American Table Tennis Union (LATTU) team championships, the Olympic Trials and the LATTU singles.
The GTTA, she said, is expected to field a team to the LATTU championships.
Lowe said she is already training at the Malteenoes Sports Club with her coach Idi Lewis and training partner Edinho Lewis – no relation.
“We’ve been playing for a while now and the training is coming along nicely.
She is quite sharp, she’s focused, and working very hard, Idi Lewis, a former Caribbean boy’s singles champion and men’s singles bronze medallist said.
“I’m urging the GTTA and the Sports Commission to rally behind her right now. All she needs is the support of the government, the GTTA, and corporate Guyana to carry her to the limit as she has the talent, Lewis added.
General Secretary of the GTTA and former three-time national men’ singles champion Godfrey Munroe agrees with Lewis.
Munroe, who has dominated men’s table tennis since former Caribbean men’s singles champion Sydney Christophe migrated, said he feels Lowe has the potential to qualify for the Olympics.
“It is not beneath her capacity to make the qualifying mark,“ Munroe declared, adding that Lowe needs to make the necessary important adjustments at this juncture.
“Ideally, what would have put her in a better position was if she was able to participate in a couple of tournaments in addition to participating in a training camp as those are the proven methods to being successful,” the GTTA General secretary added.
“Obviously there will be financial constraints but we as an association have to find or create ways against those mitigating circumstances,” he went on.
Munroe said for too long local athletes have been prevented from fulfilling their true potential adding that if local players are to become elite athletes then they must be invested in as there was no short cut.
Equipment and speed glue
Table tennis is somewhat of an expensive sport and Lowe says she has had to foot most of her expenses as she does not have a sponsor.
She plays with Tenergy 05 FX rubbers which she said “are costly, $US90 for a pair.”
She also uses a Butterfly Abotar blade.
The Tenergy 05 FX rubbers are rubbers that use water-based glues rather that the popular speed glues used previously and which have since been outlawed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
One advantage of using the new water-based rubbers is that they last longer than the previous rubbers which necessitated the use of the speed glues which contained Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).
“You glue it once, you don’t have to glue it back for three or four months,” she said.
While most top players such as Sweden’s Jan Ove Waldner and Timo Boll have said they preferred to use the speed glues, Lowe expressed a penchant for the water-based rubbers.
“I used to hardly speed glue,” she explained.
2012, 2016 Olympics in mind
Lowe, who met with GOA officials on Tuesday, disclosed that she has been identified along with a number of other TT players to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games and has been given a fitness trainer and a nutritionist.
Asked how this will impact her training schedule
she said:”Right now I will be here training.” While training at home has some advantages it is not the ideal place to train Lowe said adding that she hopes to go a ICC Training Camp in California and possibly a training stint in China in July.
Lowe has received kudos from the prestigious GOA.
Treasurer of the GOA, Garfield Wiltshire, a former national junior table tennis champion himself, said yesterday…”Obviously the GOA recognizes that she’s probably the top female table tennis player and is obviously very talented.
“If she does not get the wild card now she’s a future prospect for 2016,” Wiltshire, who went on to become one of the most dominant squash player regionally,” added.
“I want to make an impact at tournaments so you can become more noticeable, more high profile which could result in your receiving offers to go and play in the European Leagues or somewhere. I don’t only want to attend these tournaments for participation sake,” she added.
She said she feels she has been unable to fulfill her potential because of a lack of international participation and is hoping to correct that this year.
Liebherr World TT Championships, Germany
“We only get to play Caribbean TT championships, and while I played a number of LATTU tournaments as a junior player, I’m hoping between now and the end of the year, to play a lot of World-rated tournaments.
Lowe said she would like to attend this year’s Liebherr World team table tennis championships to be held in Dortmund, Germany from March 25-April 1.
“I would like to go the World’s this year. I would love to go if we can get a team. It will cost US$ 1200 or more. Perhaps myself, Michelle (John) and Natalie (Cummings) can comprise a team,” she said.
Cracking the US top 50
Lowe, who is now ranked among the top 50 female players in the United States, spoke of that achievement.
“I was working on it when I was in the US, but I was not able to make the top 50. Now that I have, I am very proud of myself, but I want to move up to the top 20 as soon as possible.”
Lowe said that she has moved from a rating of 2056 to 2173 and according to her, when she returns to the US, she plans on improving her ranking.
She opines that her rating and ranking could have been higher had she not spent a lot of time away from the US where she now resides.
“I’m down here for the last six months. If I was there (US) I would have played more competitions. The thing is if you don’t play, your rating does not move. It remains stationary.”
One of the benefits of playing in the US is that one is afforded the opportunity to play with some of the best players.
“You will come up against players from Russia, China and different parts of the World which is different to here, where you are only playing one set of players.
“In the US you get to play with players with different styles, some of them if you check you would find out that they competed in the Olympics or difference world tournaments. So it is good to play with them since you can enhance game and become an even better player.”
The downside to playing table tennis in the US is that it is costly to play. You have to be a member of a club and you have to pay your club dues and such, Lowe said.
Money helps to make a table tennis player
“If you don’t have money you can’t play,” she succinctly put it adding that there are a lot of tournaments which help to keep her competition ready.
Lowe is determined to do well in the sport but said funding continues to be her biggest bugbear.
As to her performance in 2011, Lowe said that she has had better years, but said she does not intend to dwell on the past, but focus on qualifying for the London Olympics.
She said that she expects 2012 to be an excellent year for her as she would be also concentrating on competing in more tournaments in the United States and further afield.
Lowe also wants to compete at this year’s Caribbean Championship and would really love to make it all the way to the final and eventually capture the title after being ousted in the semifinals last year.
As stated previously Trenace Lowe might have a list of accomplishments long enough to fill one or two pages of this newspaper but she is not satisfied.
She wants to reach the top.
