Cadet and Junior TT teams performed creditably

Apr 11, 2010 Sports

Under-18, Edghill, Duff qualify for Pan Am Games

By Edison Jefford
In his post mortem of Guyana’s performance at the recently-concluded Caribbean Cadets and Junior Table Tennis (TT) Championship in Puerto Rico, Godfrey Munroe told media operatives yesterday that the country performed creditably.
To support his claims, Munroe, who is the General Secretary of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), related the achievements of the U-18 Boys and Girls teams, Jamaal Duff and Chelsea Edghill, who all qualified for the Pan American Games.
“I would like to put Guyana’s performance in its right context. I think the team performed creditably; we had two outstanding players (Duff and Edghill) and I think the teams had a good run also,” Munroe said at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Edghill struck gold in the U-13 Girls’ singles category while Duff won silver in the Boys’ U-13 singles; the U-18 Boys and Girls teams, on the other hand, placed third in their class to all qualify for the prestigious Pan Am Games in September.
The Pan Am Cadet and Junior Championships is scheduled for the Dominican Republic where the best players from North America, Central America and the Caribbean will all compete. The competition is usually intense.
“When I said we wanted to put it in context is that basically we are playing against higher budgeted teams and our team is one that we can say is being rebuilt because we have a lot of young junior players coming to the fore,” he continued.
The GTTA General Secretary believes that a team in transition, such as the national team, did well following the elevation of Trenace Lowe and Michelle John and players of those two standards to the senior divisions of the sport.
“We have to bridge that gap; we have to look at areas that we can address in terms of improving our teams performance. Some of the players that they faced were on the world junior team but we still have to look at our performance,” he said.
Munroe disclosed that some of the cadets and juniors who played at the Caribbean Championships benefit from a joint initiative between Butterfly and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
Making it clear that he is not making any excuses for the team, Munroe said that funding and expertise coaching to provide an ideal environment for players were some of the areas that the association believes it was outclassed in.
“I think this team has the talent and we have the expertise it’s just a means of galvanising those things. We always, from an association point of view, like to take those negatives and turn them into positives,” Munroe firmly held.
He said the tournament gave the GTTA an opportunity to look at their programmes to see where they need strengthening. The General Secretary and current National Men’s champ believes that some institutional improvements may be required.
“This tournament based on the coaches and managers’ report, there is a lot of work that is needed to be done on fitness, tactical aspects and mental preparation-discipline within the game and personal esteem as well,” Munroe analysed.
As a result, he revealed that the association has started to brainstorm ways of making the teams and individual players’ transition more rapidly. One of the earliest programmes, he said, is to expose them to more international tournaments.

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Cadet and Junior TT teams performed creditably

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