Guyanese Trenace Lowe, who won a bronze medal in the women’s singles event at last year’s 60th Caribbean championship in Jamaica, is eager change the colour of her medal in 2019.
Lowe will get her opportunity in March, in front of her home crowd when the 61st edition of the championships gets underway at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) in Georgetown.
Lowe will, however, once again face a stern challenge from last year’s eventual winner, Yasiris Ortiz, of the Dominican Republic.
Ortiz edged her out 4-3 in an exciting semifinal match in which the Guyanese trailed 1-3 before roaring back to have a match point in the deciding game.
“I actually thought I had it because I had the match point 10-9 after I came from 3-1 down but…,” Lowe told Stabroek Sports in an exclusive interview Friday at the CASH where she is currently training.
The 27-year-old, who resides in the United States, told Stabroek Sport that she has been using her time in Georgetown to fortify her preparations.
“Since I’m here, I’ve been practicing almost four times per week,” the southpaw told Stabroek Sports in the exclusive.
“I’ve been playing with the senior guys; Joel [Alleyne], Nigel [Bryan], Shemar [Britton] and [Christopher] Franklin and even Jody-Ann [Blake] came out and practiced with me…,” Lowe said as she prepares to head back to the U.S where she said it was quite costly to access training facilities.
Her ambitions, nonetheless, will see her venturing to participate in the Portugal Table Tennis Open in February to not only play against top flight players but also to maintain her IFFT world rankings.
Lowe is currently the highest-ranked female English-speaking Caribbean table tennis player, a feat she is keen to maintain as she aims for her reputation to be ranked higher and alongside her top Spanish speaking counterparts.
“Next month I’m trying to go to the Portugal Open…that will be good, because I’ll get to maintain my world ranking. Right now, I’m ranked 296 in the world, and if you look at it too, I’m the number-one ranked female in the English-speaking Caribbean. Only the Spanish players are ranked higher,” Lowe told Stabroek Sport.
It is her goal in 2019 to improve her numbers.
She described 2018 as a solid year which began with her efforts in Cuba to help Guyana qualify for the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Games.
She also had good performances Down Under in Australia during the Commonwealth Games and the CAC Games where she qualified for the round of 16 before being defeated.
Finally, Lowe crowned off a year of excellent performances in Jamaica and served her way to silver in the mixed doubles event along with Franklin; bronze in the doubles event with her partner Jody Ann Blake; silver in the team event to go along with her bronze in the singles – all of which aided her improved ITTF seeding in 2018.
Apart from copping gold in March and working to improve her rankings, Lowe is focused on helping Guyana qualify for the 2019 Pan Am Games.
