GTTA lauds junior and cadet national teams

Apr 23, 2009 Sports

– rates performance successful

National Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Team Manager, Deirdre Edghill (centre) makes a point during the GTTA Press Conference yesterday. From left are Coaches Colin France, Munniram Persaud, Linden Johnson and General Secretary, Godfrey Munroe.

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) was unanimous yesterday when rating the performance of the national junior and cadet teams that participated at the recently held Caribbean Championships in St Kitts as successful.
General Secretary of the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe told members of the media that the unit fared successfully when their experience at such international competition is considered along with the age of many of the players.
“I would consider it [their performance] successful. If we compare their performance last year when we had more seasoned players and based on the results, we know that those players could only get better,” Munroe said.

The successful rating of the team contradicts what GTTA Vice–President, Arun Fraser, in an invited comment, had told Kaieteur Sport earlier this week. Fraser had indicated that his view was that the team “underperformed”.
However, Munroe, in making reference to Fraser’s comment, said that the inspection was made in the same context he highlighted. “I spoke with the Vice–President and I was told that he spoke in the context of last year,” Munroe retorted.
Guyana after dominating the region at the Caribbean Junior and Cadet Championship last year, placed third at the event this year behind Jamaica and Puerto Rico respectively, with a meagre tally of seven medals that was without gold.

“The issue of finance affected the player’s individual psyche. I must extend kudos to the parents and sponsors that made it possible but to have athletes running around at the last minute to raise funds for a tour is unacceptable,” Munroe observed.
According to the GTTA General Secretary, those are facts that must be considered when assessing the team’s performance. “[Deirdre] Edghill [the team’s manager and delegate] made a tremendous sacrifice turning stones into bread,” he said.
In addition, Munroe continued to offer reasons for the team being unable to defend their title when he noted that the level of the opposition, such as the Puerto Rican team and the absence of the more exposed players on the team.

“One of the problems is that we have to look at broadening our programmes because the future of Chelsea Edghill, who is just 11 years old and Adeille Rosheuvel, who has one more year in the under–15s look very bright,” he highlighted.
Asked how he will judge the performance of the team, National Coach, Linden Johnson believed that his charges did the best under the circumstances. “The team tried their best and I am satisfied with their performance,” Johnson said.
The National Sports Commission fulltime table tennis coach stated that one of the notable weaknesses of the team was the amount of debutants that the association could not have denied a place since the graduation of seasoned players.

“I know that they are going to develop over the years. At least we placed third, we got good results and we got third. The Puerto Ricans [who won] are mentally tougher and even had a sports psychiatrist on their team,” Johnson informed. The national coach indicated that he is officially awaiting a document from the Caribbean table tennis federation on the local teams that have qualified for the Latin American event that is a precursor for the World Championships.
(Edison Jefford)

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