The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) is assessing and finalizing its plans for the restart of competitions by the end of the month.
According to the GTTA, it will look to follow all the rules and regulations set by the national COVID-19 Task Force and Ministry of Health in order to ensure the safety of its players and officials.
“The athletes’ health, well-being, and safety are of paramount importance to us, so we want to ensure we get this right as we venture out. In this regard, we will use the National COVID-19 Task Force and ITTF guidelines and will be using some independent health personnel to assist us with a review of our processes while ensuring necessary approvals from the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport are secured,” the release from the body stated
The plan is to use a Top 12 and top 16 formats which would allow the opportunity to schedule and timetable the matches well in advance so players will be aware of their schedules and we will be able to promote the matches in advance, stated the GTTA.
“This format also allows us to limit the amount of players participating in the competition so as to comply with the social distancing policy
“The intention is to invite players as they are scheduled to play, so the venue would not have more than six players in the area at one time
“Players will only come to the venue based on the schedule of matches …. We will have a period to allow for sanitizing of the playing area after each match, so space and time would have to be allowed between matches and for players to warm up which will all be covered in the schedule,” the release added.
“Another key feature of our restart process is that we would have meetings with the players’, umpires and table officials to go over the safety protocols to ensure compliance.”
The categories to be contested for the initial restart competition are Men’s Top 16 duel which will come from among the nation’s top 16 players who competed at the 2020 edition of the Senior National Championships, while the boys’ competition will also include the top 16 juniors. The girls’ clash will be between the top eight junior females, while the senior females will be an Open battle among the active local players. “The plan is to carefully evolve and advance this format with the hosting of similar type competitions involving the age-group categories in the next edition of the competition proposed for December 2020 as we gradually restart the competition and training process.
“If the GTTA can get over the hurdles, our plan and aim are to run off these restart competition events from November 27 which would also give our players time to train and prepare for reengagement.
“The games will be streamed online which would allow for persons to view the matches.
“The plan is to have cash incentives for the senior categories and trophies for the juniors,” stated the release.