President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Godfrey Munroe said yesterday that the annual 59th senior Caribbean Table Tennis championships which will now be held in Cuba holds no serious implications for Guyana’s participation.
The championships were initially scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago but Stabroek Sports understands that the T&T TT Federation has indicated its unavailability to host the championships.
Munroe said yesterday that the GTTA intended to send a full team to Cuba.
“No, we would still want to send a full representative team to Cuba. I think that it’s been years since Cuba hosted a senior championship and it will be good to see how our senior team will fare,” Munroe said in response to questions regarding the switch.
“Outside of the Islamic Games, the Caribbean Games will lead into next year’s Commonwealth games slated for Australia. We did well in the last tournament so these are building blocks moving into that tournament,” the president added.
The move from the Twin Island Republic to Cuba according to the GTTA president is in large part due to the Keith Rowley-led administration’s fiscal approach to revamp the funding methodology to sporting organizations on the island.
“Basically, what we got from Trinidad and the Caribbean Regional Federation, is that the championships were shifted to Cuba because of financial difficulties. Speaking to some of them [Trinidad Table Tennis officials] they would have indicated that it’s due to the government’s review of the Rio’s performance which had some bearings on the allocation of funding to all sports associations.
“They [Trinidad] did not receive the necessary support to host the tournament. So Cuba who was the alternate country, sent a correspondent only today [yesterday] indicating that they will be hosting the tournament from July 18th to 23rd. basically, from our point of view, we are happy that the dates remain the same. However, the switch will have a few implications in terms of cost provision because we are moving from Trinidad to Cuba with Trinidad being a little cheaper,” he noted.
Preparations for the senior championships Munroe assured, are currently ongoing with the local players training at least three times per week while the overseas loopers are also working earnestly to get themselves in shape to represent Guyana.
