Five members of the national table tennis team departed Guyana yesterday morning for Santo Domingo to participate in the 54th annual Caribbean championships.
Those departing yesterday were Paul Meusa, Colin France, Nathalie Cummings and Chelsea Edghill. They were accompanied by Deidre Edghill.
General secretary of the GTTA and former two-time national men’s singles champion Godfrey Munroe said the other members of the team, national champion Nigel Bryan, Joel Alleyne, Paul David and Trenace Lowe were due to arrive in Santo Domingo yesterday from New York.
Bryan, Alleyne and Lowe are coming off a two week training stint at the Lily Yip Training centre in New Jersey.
Munroe said the remaining members of the team Brad Belle and Ray `Copter’ Anderson will depart today.
The team was expected to be managed by Dr. Pradeep Balram, chairman of the selection committee but he has since pulled out citing another engagement.
The men’s team of Bryan, Alleyne, Meusa and David is one of the weakest in years and it is hardly likely that the team will medal at the championships.
The GTTA was also caught in a bit of controversy over the selection of the men’s team since regular players Idi Lewis and Christopher Franklyn have been omitted.
GTTA president Henry Greene said that the two players had informed the GTTA that they were no longer willing to play for the men’s team.
The GTTA was also criticized by Stephen Belle, father of twin sons Brad and Brandon over the fact that they were not even named as standby players in the boys UU-21 category that honour going to Denzel Hopkinson at first.
However Greene in a wide ranging interview with Stabroek Sports had admitted that the GTTA selection committee had erred in naming Hopkiunson ahead of Brad belle.
“The selection panel overlooked Brad Belle. I won’t lie. They did not bring up his name and when the list came to me I said what you all did was unfair.
We then wrote the Dominican Republic and we got approval for him to participate,” Green said.
Munroe said that the GTTA had received a response to their request from Juan Vila, former Caribbean men’s singles champion who said that Santo Domingo would be willing to accommodate the extra player.
