Former Caribbean junior boys champion turned coach Idi Lewis is a proud man.
Reason being?
Lewis’s male and female table tennis teams recently participated at the 64th annual Caribbean championships and were the best English-speaking Caribbean teams on show winning bronze medals.
Given the fact that regional powerhouses Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico were all represented makes the bronze medal achievements even more satisfactory.
Lewis says he is proud because those teams mentioned above are better funded and better prepared, a fact that has been known for ages.
“I’m very proud of their performances since we were able to hold our own against heavily funded and much better prepared players,” said Lewis in an interview with Stabroek Sport.
“We were up against professional players that are based mainly in Europe, the hours these athletes put in daily is more than we’re able to do in a week, due to work and school commitments,” he added.
Since the Caribbean championships have expanded to include the Spanish speaking countries, Guyana’s men and women’s teams have not won the team titles.
In fact the last time the men’s team won the team title was in 1973 while the women last won in 1974.
Lewis, who himself has won a bronze medal in men’s singles at the Caribbean senior championships, said this year’s event was probably the most competitive he has ever attended.
“This was also by far the hardest and most competitive Caribbean championship we’ve ever been a part of reason being it’s also a qualifier for the PanAm and World Championships and we were able to share bronze in the men’s next to Caribbean powerhouse Dom Rep (The Dominican Republic) and bronze in the women’s with another powerhouse Puerto Rico is a good sign,” he declared.
Lewis also lauded the play of national men’s singles champion Christopher Franklin and former Caribbean U21 champion Shemar Britton for qualifying for the PanAm championships.
“Christopher Franklin and Shemar Britton qualified for the PanAm championships by reaching the round of 16 and quarters respectively and we expect Chelsea (Edghill) to qualify via world ranking.
“She also defeated the eventual women’s singles champion Idalys Lovett of Cuba in the team event.”
Lewis said himself and the GTTA will soon turn their attention to preparation for this year’s Commonwealth Games.
“I’m just getting back and I’ll be meeting with the president (GTTA president Godfrey Munroe) shortly to discuss preparation. I’m hoping to have a structured local training programme at least six days per week and at least a six-week training camp in Europe or China.”
Lewis said that he was grateful to all who assisted in making the teams participation at the championships successful.
“Lastly, special thanks to GTTA president Godfrey Munroe and the Executive Committee, the Guyana Olympic Association and its president K. A Juman Yassin, the Minister of Sport, Charles Ramson Jnr., and his Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, the Guyana Committee of Services and last but not least Guyana’s Ambassador to Cuba Mr. Majid (Halim) and staff who took good care of us and made us feel proud to be Guyanese.”
