-GTTA president confident in team’s chances of winning
Newly elected president of the Guyana Table Tennis Association Godfrey Munroe remains confident that the table tennis players selected to compete in the Inter Guiana Goodwill Games (IGGG) in Suriname this weekend will be able to produce superior performances.
The team comprises Elishaba Johnson, Kyle Edghill, Shemar Britton, Anna Joao, Priscilla Greaves and Kristie Lopes. Linden Johnson has been appointed as coach of the team, while Deidre Edghill will function as the team manager for the IGGG.
According to Munroe, the competition represents a slight deviation from the age group used by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) since it will be an Under 14 tournament. The rational for this according to Munroe is to give players from both nations a chance to have some competitive exposure as they prepare for the South American School Games at the end of the month.
Munroe said that the players have been properly prepared for this tournament and he expects them to perform well at this weekend event.
“Well our players are always constantly practising but they have been intensifying their preparation during the last two weeks,” Munroe said.
Munroe’s confidence in the table tennis players was also built on the fact that he was familiar with the level of talent of a few of Suriname’s junior players.
“We know that they (Suriname) are two players that played in the Caribbean championships and they should be formidable,” Munroe said.
Munroe said that while they are a few talented players, he believes that Guyana’s campaigners are a notch above their Surinamese counterparts. Secondly, Munroe said that he doubts that Suriname has any depth of talent in their squad apart from the two players that he was familiar with. The former national champion said that this is likely to work out in Guyana’s favour since IGGG will be played in the team format.
The format to be utilized according to Munroe, is the Corbillion team format which involves singles and doubles play. In that format, the first strings play each other followed by the second strings in singles matchup before the double competition where teams can utilise any of the three players on the team. After the doubles competition, then there is a reverse order of the singles matches as first strings play second strings.
Although this year’s event is considered a goodwill event as it just includes the participation of Guyana and Suriname, Munroe said that it is hugely significant for GTTA since it represents the reintroduction of table tennis at the IGG level.
Munroe stated that he hopes that Guyana is able to give a good performance and establish themselves as the table tennis powerhouses at the IGG level.
