Costa Rica’s Silvia Garro was expected to arrive in Guyana last night ahead of Thursday’s commencement of the Guyana Table Tennis Association/International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) umpires, referees and tournament coordinators course.
The programme, which ends Monday, is being held by the GTTA with the stated aim of developing a nucleus of persons of with knowledge and understanding of the rules of the sport and the ability to coordinate competitions.
“We hope to not only improve the quality of officiating but to have better coordinated tournaments with the central aim of raising the level and marketing the sport,” GTTA president Godfrey Munroe said.
The course will be held at the National Gymnasium commencing at 9 am daily.
“Garro is a well accredited expert having served at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships where she managed over 80 umpires. She also served as chief referee at the recent ITTF Junior Circuit Finals in Guatemala and has officiated and done several such type course in many countries,” a release from the GTTA stated.
“She is the first ever official from Costa Rica to receive the distinction and in one of two women in the team who officiated as referee, a first for a World Championships. The other is China’s Zhang Yingqu,” the release added.
According to the GTTA, the programme is critical to the development of the game in Guyana and an area which has had a deficit.
“The umpires and referee and tournament coordination course offers tremendous opportunities for participants since it provides opportunities to accredited persons to be able to travel to different continental tournaments around the world to officiate,” sated the GTTA’s release.
The GTTA has extended invitations to representatives from region 2 6, 10, schools GTU districts, coaches clubs among other stakeholders
“The GTTA sees this as a step towards advancing the knowledge of our coaches and by extension raising the level of the players and the creating the catalyst for improving the institutional structures such as clubs tournaments training players technical levels etc.,” stated the release.
