The return of table tennis in Guyana in the form of the national table tennis championships staged by the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) was a welcome fillip for the sport.
Since the pandemic began, tournaments run by the governing body had dried up although the GTTA was represented internationally at some events.
The Caribbean Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) too was forced to postpone its annual championships in 2020 and 2021.
However, the CRTTF has indicated that the championships will return this year in Cuba, a most welcome development, signalling a return somewhat to some sort of normalcy albeit with strict COVID-19 measures including possibly vaccination of players and officials.
The GTTA has indicated too that the long overdue Annual General Meeting (caused possibly by the pandemic) and election of office bearers will take place shortly.
This is another positive development for the sport as table tennis cannot progress if an illegal executive is running its operations.
Given the standard of play exhibited at the recent championships, it is clear that the game is in urgent need of a shot in the arm.
Congratulations are in order for the outstanding participants at this year’s nationals.
Christopher Franklin continues to rule the roost in the men’s division, winning his fourth national men’s singles title while Olympian Chelsea Edghill showed that she is a cut above the other female players by strolling to the female title, her second.
Other outstanding performances came from `whiz kid’ Jonathan Van Lange, who at 15 reached the semi-finals of the men’s singles competition. He also won the `B’ and `C’ class events, the U19 and U21 categories and the men’s doubles title with Shemar Britton to be easily the most outstanding player of the championships.
Then there was the prodigious talent of Jasmine Billingy, who at 11 continues to defy the odds, defeating older, bigger and stronger opponents.
Billingy won the girls U15, U19 and U21 titles and is worth investing in.
Following the AGM, the new executive of the GTTA should look at ways of developing the sport given the obvious talent that abounds.
The first order of business should be the establishment or revival of sub-associations and the decentralization of the sport.
Table tennis continues to be a city-based sport and there are few if any tournaments in the other regions.
The GTTA should also try to popularize the sport and towards this end exhibition matches featuring a number of their top players should be undertaken.
Edghill, when available, can be used to inspire other young, aspiring table tennis stars, of what can be achieved and as an Olympian, she can be the perfect ambassador for the GTTA to promote their sport.
Now that the restrictions of the pandemic have been eased somewhat, the GTTA can look towards the resuscitation of club table tennis by organizing league tournaments that can be played on weekends and keep the players active in between their national and international engagements.
For too long table tennis in Guyana has been mainly an individual sport through the plethora of individual tournaments and the lack of club tournaments have been glaring.
Clubs are the backbone of any association and what the GTTA needs to do is to ensure that the clubs are properly structured and in line with the GTTA’s objectives and that each club has a resident coach.
Clubs should also go on recruitment drives to attract more members and the GTTA should facilitate this new drive for membership by having novices club tournaments so as to give those players some type of exposure.
There have been attempts in the past to organize inter-corporation tournaments which have been fairly successful and the GTTA should try to return to that blueprint.
They can also add Inter-Ward tournaments, which has been successfully used by football administrators and promoters, to the yearly calendar of events.
Concerning the upcoming Caribbean championships, the GTTA has selected Franklin, Britton, Miguel Wong and Van Lange (men) and Edghill, Trenace Lowe, Natalie Cummings and Priscilla Greaves to fly the Golden Arrowhead.
The teams will have their work cut out for them because of the strength of the Cubans and other countries such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and while team honours will be difficult Franklin, Edghill and company will look to bring singles glory to Guyana once more.
Guyana has always accredited itself well at the Caribbean championships but the last men’s team title was in 1973 with Mike Baptiste the captain. The last time the women’s team won the Caribbean team title was in 1974.
It has been 30 years since Guyana last won the men’s singles title through Sydney Christophe and 48 years since Carol Davidson won the second of her two Caribbean women’s singles titles in 1974 in Barbados where Guyanaese Bruce Edwards also won the men’s singles crown.
Chances of adding Caribbean men and women’s singles hardware to the GTTA’s cabinet, rests on Franklin and Edghill at the moment and Van Lange and Billingy in the future.
But the GTTA needs to get it its act together and reignite the passion for the sport by its young faithful.
National teams should be selected early and training must be tailored to suit the individual needs of the players.
The GTTA also needs to have a selection policy that is transparent and is known to the players who a\spire to be selected on the representative national teams.
Coaching too needs to be done all year round and not only when it is near time for international competitions.
The GTTA also needs to provide the necessary infrastructure for success at the various levels of regional table tennis and a home for the sport should be of utmost priority.
The above will be the task of the new executive.
It will be difficult and hard but it can be done.
