Guyana’s local Table Tennis contingent to the Islamic Solidarity Games departed yesterday en route to Baku, Azerbaijan where they will compete in the fourth staging of the games.
The talented bunch assembled at the Guyana Olympic Association headquarters, around 2am yesterday morning and gave Stabroek Sports an insight of what to expect as they attempt to loop and serve Guyana to honors.
Christopher Franklin, who fought his way to a quarterfinal spot in the last staging of the games four years ago in Indonesia, said that he did not want to predict too much but added that he was feeling pretty confident about his chances.
“I know the competition is going to be very stiff, even more this time around because they’ll have a lot more players in the top 100 that’s gonna be there so it’s going to be world-class,” Franklin said.
He added: “I have been training pretty hard so I expect to come away with a few good wins in the tournament. I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch but I’m feeling fairly confident about my chances,” the 33-year-old stated.
Meanwhile, coach of the team ldi Lewis, expressed similar reserved sentiments when asked about how Guyana should fare at the international games.
“We are not thinking about medals right now it’s just about giving 100 percent and just taking it one match at a time and if that turns out to a few medals, well that will be perfect but I’m not putting that kind of pressure on my players. We just want to take it one match at a time,” Lewis said.
The quintet of Franklin, Lewis, Joel Alleyne, Nigel Bryan and Natalie Cummings will journey to Trinidad and Tobago before heading to New York where they are expected to meet up the overseas-based duo of Chelsea Edghill and Trenace Lowe.
The team will then travel to Turkey before reaching their final destination in Azerbaijan.
The Guyana players will have just about three days to acclimatize themselves before Monday’s draw after which they will begin their campaign.
