GTTA launches Schools’ Teams TT tourney

Jan 16, 2010 Sports

Event part of developmental programme

GTTA General Secretary, Godfrey Munroe (left) addresses members of the media at the head table along with, from left, Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, Business School representative, Mark Evans and National Table Tennis Coach, Linden Johnson yesterday.

By Edison Jefford
The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) launched its Schools’ Team Table Tennis tournament yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall as part of an effort to develop the much-anticipated schools’ table tennis programme.
The tournament will be held during January 28-31 at the Sports Hall with a representative of each team scheduled to meet with the association on January 27 to ensure that systems have been put in place for their schools’ participation.
General Secretary of the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe said that the schools are the bedrock of the sports development and that their intention to commence with a teams tournament as opposed to a singles’ event, is to build relationships.
“As I have prior mentioned, the cradle of the developmental thrust for table tennis begins in the schools. I know in a prior interview with you [Kaieteur Sport], I’d mentioned that as one of the shortfalls of the sport,” Munroe said.
“It’s one of the areas that we are not fully able to implement, but it is a work in progress, but yes, indeed, this is one of those steps toward our schools programme,” he continued when this newspaper asked him if it was on that agenda.
Munroe believes that teams produce a more collaborative effort where players are able to build relationships over the period of time. He said that a singles tournament would have forced the association to use the knockout format.
“Teams are more collaborative, it encompasses a wider spectrum of players as opposed to the singles where you will be forced to play knockout because of its magnitude and teams holistically develop the players,” the GTTA official believes.
It was revealed that the registration process for schools is ongoing but the association was so far able to get confirmation of teams from Presidents College, Queens College, Christ Church Secondary, East Ruimveldt Secondary, North Ruimveldt Multilateral, West Ruimveldt Primary and St. Margaret’s Primary.
With all those schools situated in Georgetown, Kaieteur Sport asked about the association decentralisation efforts, and Munroe informed that they are working to have committees in Berbice as part of their plan to have more regions involved.
“We are working in Berbice to have a similar committee set up because under the GTTA constitution, we are allowed to have sub-committees or sub-associations. And it’s a while now that table tennis has not been organised along those lines because of the absence of the requisite personnel,” the General Secretary said.
National Table Tennis Coach, Linden Johnson indicated that for the meanwhile, some of the senior national players will adopt a school for the tournament. This will help them in their endeavours to bring home the bacon next week.
“I look for the continued collaboration between us and the Ministry of Sport and National Sport Commission. I know that they have pledged the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall for the rest of this tournament and I know they have pledged to assist in other regards.” Munroe noted before turning to Director of Sport, Neil Kumar.
Answering the charge, the Director of Sport committed to helping the association in most of the outstanding areas. The association had managed to procure the support of Business School as a sponsor for the inaugural event this year.
“What we will do is provide the venue; the transportation that they have come to us with, we will, if the out of town players want to stay at the dorm that we have at the Gymnasium, we will provide that for them. In whatever way we can help, we will help,” Kumar told the association and the media.
The GTTA then thanked the sponsor, the National Sports Commission, Johnson and the Media for their respective support. “I think at the end of the day it’s the young athlete that we are looking to develop the sport and country,” Munroe concluded.