Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Chief Godfrey Munroe says he is pleased with Guyana’s performance at the recently concluded 21st Caribbean Table Tennis Federation Junior and Cadet Championships in the Dominican Republic.
Guyana won the overall silver medal in the team event after Elishaba Johnson and Kyle Edghill won gold in the Men u-18 doubles, Shemar Britton won bronze in the Men u18 singles division and Nicholas Romain won bronze in the u-15 Mixed Doubles. Speaking at a press conference held at the National Gymnasium following the team’s return, Munroe said that while there are improvements that can be made, he is very pleased with the overall showing.
He thanked the respective sponsors and entities such as the Guyana Olympic Association and National Sports Commission for their efforts in assisting the teams participation, noting that financial constraints was the reason that a larger team was not sent and due to this, the players with the better chance of medaling were selected.
According to Munroe, the association is looking forward to participating at the Pan American Games from June 25th-29th in Canada, declaring “We have to ensure that the team is much more prepared for that tournament”.
He further noted that the current team is part of the next generation of national players and that the association will be working on creating a cycle that will be used to prepare the respective participants to represent the country at future endeavours.
Munroe further declared that more avenues are needed to expose players to higher quality competition, stating that the players who are excelling presently are the ones that have been consistently exposed to higher quality events consistently so they can be able to realise their true potential.
Coach of the setup Linden Johnson during brief remarks echoed the sentiments of Munroe on the performance of the team, stating “I think the team performed as expected, we made a few mistakes throughout the event but the team performed their best”.
He noted that the errors recorded are not technical or physical but mostly mental and that the team has to prepare better in that regard for future sojourns. “I am happy about the performance, I could be even more happy if we had done a little better but I am pleased with the performance”, he added.
Meanwhile, the gold medal winning team of Edghill and Johnson accredit their chemistry as the reason for their success. Edghill said “I guess in the preparation for the double we started off a bit shaky but we held it together as we got accustomed and we just made up our mind that we had to do it and we got what we wanted”.
Similarly Johnson said “In the practice our chemistry was fair but as we continued we prevailed in the tournament because we are longtime doubles partners and longtime Caribbean championships doubles. We have won already, this is like the fourth time so when we went into the tournament we got ourselves together and as we continued to play the matches our chemistry came back and we went and we won”.
Bronze medalist Britton during brief remarks said “I would say I performed fairly well with the preparation I had. I’m currently in the CAPE cycle so I’m not really training a lot…”.
According to Britton “Due to that I didn’t perform at my best and I gave it all I got but sadly it wasn’t enough this time but judging by my age and the guy who won the competition Aaron Wilson, I don’t think it is such a big distance and I think after my exams are over, I would be able to break that gap”.
