The image will be forever indelibly printed in the memory of those who saw it as Shemar Britton let out a guttural roar and sank to his knees.
The reason.
He had just qualified for the Pan American Games, which in itself is a qualifier for the Olympic Games.
But it was not just that Britton had defied the odds and his opponents to book his ticket on the plane to Santiago, Chile, later this year, it was the manner in which he accomplished the feat.
You see Britton had lost to Colombian Julian Ramos on the opening day of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) qualification tournament to arrive at the qualifiers for the Pan Am Games.
Ramos had defeated Britton (4-2) winning 11-8, 6-11, 11-13, 11-7, 8-11 and 11-7.
That was two days ago. Now at the semi-final stage of the second day’s qualifying campaign Ramos stood between Britton and a trip to Chile. Again Ramos won the first game 11-6 and once again Britton was forced to come face to face with the fact that Ramos was not going to make this easy.
It was do -or die time.
Britton won the second 11-8, Ramos took the third 11-8, Britton won the fourth 11-8, Ramos took the fifth 11-7 and was up a couple of match points before Britton triumphed 14-12. In the final game Britton won 11-9 when his forehand loop caught the edge of the table and the rest as they say is history.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport, Britton said that the achievement ranks up there with his many other achievements including winning the Caribbean U21 singles crown.
“Qualifying for the Pan American Games ranks right up there with my very best achievements in table tennis considering the quality of opposition and the fact that not many, if any male Guyanese player has qualified for the event.”
Going into the tournament Britton knew that he faced an uphill task as the event was littered with quality players including his close friend Barbadian Tyrese Knight who was the number one seed and the Dominican Republic’s Jiaj Wu.
“It was extremely difficult to qualify as all of the players that attended the qualifiers except for myself were professional players who were all well prepared and desperate to qualify as well,” he said.
“Thankfully I was able to summon up one of my best performances when it mattered the most,” he added.
Asked about his preparation leading up to the Qualifiers Britton, who is pursuing a Bachelors of Law degree said: “I definitely don’t think I had the required amount of time to prepare for the Qualifiers as the Qualifiers occurred a mere month after my final exams in UWI (The University of the West Indies).
“However, I was able to go to 888 Table Tennis Center (in California USA) after my exams and train under the tutelage of Alex Gomes (Portugal) alongside rival and good friend Tyrese Knight and was able to fast track my preparation for the Qualifiers.”
Asked what were some of the problems he encountered playing against the opposing players, Britton said: “The biggest adjustment at the Qualifiers was getting accustomed to the speed of play of my opponents as the Latin American players especially play a lot quicker than the English speaking Caribbean players.”
Asked what he visualizes his training should be looking ahead to the upcoming Games in October Britton said: “Ideally, heading into the Pan American Games I will be in a High Performance Camp in Europe or Asia among some of the best players and coaches in the world training at least six hours a day, that is funding permits,” he declared.
Asked what’s next after the Pan American Games Britton said hopefully he can make the Olympics.
“Well, the Pan American Games fall a mere six months before the Olympic Qualifiers so hopefully after the Pan American Games you see me competing and gaining a spot at the Olympic Games.
“It’s tough, however, because everyone who’s qualified for the games has already started preparing, playing at high level camps and so on while I’m still at home waiting to discuss plans,” he said, adding that the winner of the Pan American Games singles competition qualifies directly for the Olympic Games.
Britton has already defied the odds once in qualifying for the Pan Am Games, let’s hope he won’t have to defy the odds a second time.
