The Guyana table Tennis Association (GTTA) is looking up give its players some amount of overseas training as it prepares to participate in a number of upcoming international events.
President of the GTTA Godfrey Munroe yesterday told this newspaper that training stints in China, participation at the Pan American Olympic Festival in Mexico, the Caribbean Table Tennis championships in Cuba and the Commonwealth Games in Scotland and the CAC games in November are all on the cards, once funding is available.
According to Munroe, the national women’s table tennis team will be definitely participating in this year’s Pan American Olympic Festival billed for Mexico from July 17-20 while three players Trenace Lowe and Chelsea Edghill along with Shemar Britton will be heading to China for a month long training stint.
The Guyana women’s team of Lowe, Edghill, Natalie Cummings and Akecia Nedd team qualified for participation at the Olympic Festival due to their second place finish at last year’s Caribbean Table Tennis Championships held in St Lucia.
The Pan American Olympic Festival will serve as a qualifier for the Toronto, Canada, 2015 Pan America Games and competition will be held in the men and women’s teams, men and women’s singles and doubles events.
Winners of the men and women’s singles events will qualify for the Pan American Games but only is the country does to qualify.
Meanwhile Edghill, who is the beneficiary of an International Table tennis Federation (ITTF) scholarship, will be joined by Britton and Lowe in China for a one month stint.
Edghill has qualified for the 2014 Road to Nanjing Training Camp which will be held June 3-21 in Shanghai. The camp is jointly organized by the China Table Tennis Association, the Shanghai Administration of Sports and the ITTF Education and Training Programme.
“It is a great pleasure for the ITTF Education and Training Programme to present one of the most exciting table tennis training camps in the history of the ITTF Global Junior Programme, the 2014 Road to Nanjing Training Camp, scheduled at the Shanghai Sport Training Base of Oriental Green Boat/China,” a release from the organisers, Glenn Tepper, ITTF Deputy CEO, Polona Cehovin Susin ITTF Education and Training Director and Mikael Anderson ITTF Senior Consultatnt stated.
“The Training Camp planned and designated in close partnership with the Chinese Table tennis Association and the Shanghai Administration of Sports, will feature outstanding training, in-depth education and exciting new coaching ideas offered by two former top players and world champions, ready to take centre stage Jorgen Persson from Sweden and Wang Liquin from China,” the release added.
According to Munroe the ITTF will cover the hospitality expenses for Edghill and Britton for the period June 2-22 after which the event will move to Taicang.
Munroe said the Guyana Olympic Association has agreed to cover Lowe’s expenses.
The trip will be accompanied by national coach Idi Lewis who is at present undergoing another ITTF coaching stint in Europe.
Asked about Guyana’s participation at the upcoming Caribbean TT championships billed for Cuba, Munroe said Guyana will be sending a representative team to that championships but added that he was awaiting a decision from the Latin American Table Tennis Union (LATTU) as to whether the Caribbean championships will be used as a qualifier for the CAC or Pan Am Games.
“Given our financial limitations we might have to use the option of going to El Salvador the other qualifier for CAC and Pan Am.”
Munroe said he was at the moment engaging officials from the CTTF but to date had received no clear communique on the issue.
