Coach of Guyana’s Junior National Table Tennis players Dwain Dick, is not at all peeved about Guyana’s showing at the just concluded Caribbean Mini and Pre Cadet Table Tennis Championships which was hosted in the Dominican Republic.
The Guyanese athletes walked away with three bronze medals.
Dick, in his assessment of Guyana’s showing, told Stabroek Sport that the juniors held their own against some of the region’s top players but called on the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) to continue making strides to expose the juniors and to discover new talents.
“[I’m] not disappointed. The Dominican Republic team went to China; the ‘B’ team recently returned from a tournament in El Salvador. We can’t expect to just show up and dominate them,” he said as he insisted that Guyana gave a good account of themselves.
“We held our own…we got major victories over established players in the circuit,” he emphasised.
Dick’s overall assessment in this regard led him to highlight the current crop of under–13 male players including Jonathan Van Lange, Krystian Sahadeo, Colin Wong and Dhanesh Persaud, who performed exceptionally well during the championships following a number of major wins.
“Our boys under-13 team has shown significant improvement and is on the verge of being one of the best teams in the Caribbean. We beat Puerto 3-1, Dominica Republic B 3-2, and Jamaica 3-0.
“We lost to the Dominican Republic ‘A’ in the semis in some highly competitive matches, because of hesitation and a little uncertainty in the critical stages of the matches.
“Much more emphasis needs to be placed on our girls and boys under-11 for them to be competitive; much more work needs to be done. We didn’t field a girls’ under-13 and it hurt the boys chances of medals in mixed doubles,” the national coach told this newspaper.
Dick is urging the GTTA to streamline more opportunities to grant the juniors the exposure they need to develop.
“One or two more competitions at this level and the under-13 boys will get over the hurdles of competition jitters and some nervousness.
“The tennis and talent are there. It’s our flagship junior team and should be supported so that they can develop and progress, especially since junior Commonwealth is in Trinidad 2021.”
He also noted that a long-term training and development programme and structure should be established to harness the talent of those currently in the system.
