Berbician Souvenir Ramdehol, a 2009 Hall of Fame Realtor of Queens New York, United States of America said yesterday that all systems are in place for what should be a successful second annual Berbice Open table tennis tournament. Ramdehol, who attended the New Amsterdam Multilateral School and who represented Berbice in the discipline, is staging this year’s tournament along with former top Berbice players Patrick Narayan and Lanny Anthony, two US-based Guyanese.
“All systems are in place for the tournament which is being staged by myself, Patrick and Lanny,” Ramdehol told Stabroek Sport yesterday morning after arriving from the USA the night before. He also said that apart from the usual prizes he also plans to donate equipment in the form of table tennis rubbers and blades to the various winners.
Ramdehol said he will also be presenting equipment donated by former Caribbean men’s singles champion Sydney Christophe and Caribbean men’s singles bronze medallists Paul David and Idi Lewis to promising players who are unable to afford to purchase equipment.
Additionally David and Lewis, who are due in Guyana early next week, will stage a clinic in Berbice on Thursday, Ramdehol said. Ramdehol said he was excited to stage the second annual Berbice following the success of last year’s inaugural tournament. Unlike last year, however, this year’s tournament, which begins at 9am, will be held at the Port Mourant Training School, a venue where numerous table tennis tournaments have been held.
Port Mourant is also home to a number of top table tennis players like Isaac Seunarine and Samuel Duke.
The tournament is being held under the auspices of the Guyana Table tennis Association whose president Godfrey Munroe yesterday lauded the initiative of Ramdehol, Narayan and Anthony.
Munroe will be a part of the GTTA delegation which is also expected to include general secretary Linden Johnson. Categories to be contested are U11, U13, U15, U18 and novices. The competition is open to Berbicians only and in order to be eligible persons must have been living and working in the county for the past three years.
Among the women players to have excelled in the sport over the years are
Doreen Chow-Wah, Desiree Lancaster, Donna Sue, Vida Moore and Petal Bennet while the male top players include Seunarine, the late Roy Fredericks, Leslie Amsterdam, Alvin Kallicharran, Clairmont Saul, Colin Moore, Ray Hazel, Evan Chee, Roger and Mark Alphonso and Floyd Conway.
