Gavin Hope, Digicel’s Sponsorship and Events Manager yesterday praised the initiative by the Guyana Table Tennis Association to include a novices category in the annual schools table tennis teams’ championships which is sponsored by the telecommunications giant.
Hope in brief remarks at the opening of the annual tournament said that his company would continue
to support table tennis adding that he was looking forward to a competitive championship.
“The addition of the novices category, is in my opinion, a plus for the discipline of table tennis,” Hope a former national sprinter said.
“I especially would like to thank all the schools for participating and I reiterate, I am looking forward to keen rivalry and an exciting weekend of table tennis.”
GTTA president Godfrey Munroe in large measure echoed the sentiments of Hope as it related to the inclusion of the novices category.
“I think it is a good inclusion we’ve made given the response to the initiative. The intention was basically to give players who might not have played at all on their teams as they might have been ranked three or four, the opportunity to participate in the championships and to our surprise we have unearthed a whole nucleus of players. The competition was good but we also saw the latent talent which means that there are lots of potential for the GTTA to harness. Already we are looking at bring the players together sometime soon,” Munroe added.
The GTTA president said that the one downside was the fact that schools from Linden and New Amsterdam are missing from this year’s tournament.
“I don’t know the reason for Linden’s absence since they registered and everything. I don’t know why they are not here. Berbice too is missing and they are the defending U15 champs.”
Munroe did say however that it was heartening to see schools from West Demerara, Vigilance and Buxton participating in the tournament.
In the novices category, Mae’s A and Bishops’ High are through to the semi-finals with ASH Educational Trust coming up against St Rose’s B and St Rose’s A playing Marian Academy this morning for the remaining semi-final spots.
The 11 years and under category will see Mae’s A and North Georgetown Primary playing in the final while Mae’s B will tackle Rama Krishna for third place.
In the 13 years and under category Marian Academy A and Mae’s A have reached the semi-finals while Marian Academy B will oppose Mae’s B and Queen’s College will come up against Central High in the remaining quarter final matches.
The 15 years and under category will see one more round of matches being contested before the teams go into knockout the knockout round.
The Business School with two wins lead group one while in group two Bartica Secondary with two wins are in front. Mae’s A also with two wins leads group three.
The U18s will also continue today with one more round before the quarter finals.
Play commences this morning at 9am.
