Four national table tennis players will from today commence action in Rosario, Argentina, as the 2021 Latin American singles and mixed doubles Olympic qualifiers get underway.
The players will be looking to qualify for this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan.
Four places in the men’s singles event at the Tokyo Olympic Games, three women singles spots plus one mixed doubles pair will qualify for Tokyo.
Male players, Shemar Britton and Joel Alleyne and female players Chelsea Edghill and Natalie Cummings will compete against the best in Latin America with a view to earning the few spots available for the region.
Brazil’s world rated Hugo Calderano and Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz have already qualified for Tokyo leaving the rest of the field to battle for the remaining spots.
Edghill, a former Caribbean under 21 female champion who plays semi-professionally in Portugal, is the best bet to secure an Olympic berth.
Britton, himself a former Caribbean under 21 men’s champion, will also fancy his chances.
Cummings, the national women’s champion, is a determined player and a hard worker while Alleyne, on his day can spring a few surprises.
The coach is Idi Lewis.
In the women’s singles, Edghill will play Monica Munoz of Mexico with Cummings down to play Luicia Cordero.
In the men’s singles, Britton will oppose Alejandro Toranzos of Paraguay while Alleyne will play Panama’s Gustavo Gomez.
In the mixed doubles, Britton and Edghill will play Alberto Mino and Nathaly Paderes of Ecuador.
According to a release from the Guyana Table Tennis Association, (GTTA) team member Edghill departed Lisbon, Portugal enroute to New York, eventually joining up with team members in Miami.
Similarly, Alleyne, who is based in Houston, Texas, USA, joined team members Britton, Cummings and Lewis in Miami enroute to Buenos Aires via Colombia.
The players arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday at 11pm and subsequently made the five hour journey to Rosario arriving at 5am yesterday morning stated the release.
“They had their first practice session at 11 am yesterday and based on reports from Coach Idi Lewis the sessions went well. The players didn’t seem as fatigued and tired given the long flight hours they travelled and short recovery time,” the release added.
According to Lewis, their next practice session was scheduled for 6.30 pm yesterday and they will commence battle from 9.30 am today.
The qualifiers follows a single elimination best of seven matches format where the two finalists on the first day will qualify for Tokyo.
The final will not be played.
A redraw will be held for the next round.
In the mixed doubles qualification, each country can only field one doubles team.
According to the release from the GTTA, with the rising cases in Argentina the competition seemed in doubt.
However, the Argentina Table Tennis Association, the Argentina Olympic Committee and the government of Argentina came together to ensure that the necessary systems were put in place to create a safe and bubble type environment for the more players from the participating countries
This required more stringent testing CPR Antigen retesting at the airport, random test during the games and strict adherence to the bubble environment.
The competition will also provide world ranking points for the participants.
Missing from the Guyana men’s team is national champion Christopher Franklin and Nigel Bryan while the women’s team is without Trenace Lowe.
Some of the players expected to be on show in the competition which ends Saturday are Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre, Argentina’s Horacio Cifuentes, Mexico’s Marcos Madrid and Ecuador’s Alberto Miño among the men.
In the women’s singles the top players are Puerto Rico’s Melanie Diaz, Chile’s Paulina Vega and Daniela Ortega and Argentina’s Camila Arguelles.
