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Players Organise end of year Tourney Johnson says 2019 was ‘decent year’ for Table Tennis
By Sean Devers
An end of the year Table Tennis tournament organised by the senior Nationals Shemar Britton and Joel Alleyne and sanctioned by the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) served off yesterday at the Malteenoes Sports Club on Thomas Road.
Action on day one of the two-day End of year tournament at Malteenoes yesterday
With an entrance fee of $2,000 the tournament was staged between two teams made of the top five senior and bottom five Juniors and the bottom five seniors and top five Juniors.
The games were played in round robin format before a Knock-out format today when the semi-finals and final will be contested.
Yesterday Britton explained that the senior players were talking about a good way to end the year and he and Alleyne came up with the idea and with the backing of GTTA President Godfrey Munroe and National Coach and General Secretary of the GTTA Linden Johnson the competition was staged with the top 10 Senior and Junior players in the Country participating.
The seniors were Chris Franklyn, Nigel Bryan, Elishaba Johnson, Warren Mackshau, Devon Richmond, Orin Hickson, Johnathon Sanker and the organisers Alleyne and Britton.
The Juniors were Kaysam Ninvalle, Isiah Layne, Niron Bissu, Colin Wong, Dhanesh Persaud, Colin McRae, Chad Outar, Joshua Lucas, along Morris Cummins and Shaven Green from Linden and the lone female Thariah Thomas
National Coach Linden Johnson (left) and GTTA President Godfrey Munroe (right) with Nat Snr and Jnr players at MSC yesterday.
The competition commenced with doubles since this format will be used in the 2020 Olympics with singles coming after the doubles.
The Olympic qualifiers from Table Tennis are set for April in Puerto Rico and Johnson, in his capacity as National Coach, said Table Tennis had a ‘decent’ year in 2019.
The GTTA always wanted to hold an end of the year tournament and next year it will on their Calendar of Events.
“It was great to see that the players planned this tournament,” Johnson stated.
“In March we hosted the Pan American qualifiers before hosting the Senior Caribbean Championship which was used for the Men’s Qualifiers for the Latin American Team Championships,” Johnson informed.
He said that Chelsea Edghill qualified for the Pan Am Games but lost to the Number 3 seed in the first round.
Edghill is Number one among the Female, while Franklyn is the number one male.
GTTA Head, 47-year-old Munroe, in his second term after being first elected in 2014, said that this year the GTTA also benefited from a two-month stint by Cuban Coach Osdani Romero Garcia.
Munroe informed that Garcia’s work in Guyana was funded by the GTTA and the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) through a Pan American Sports Development Grant.
Munroe, a former Caribbean Champion, indicated that plans for 2020 include the hosting of the Caribbean Junior and Cadet Championships in April and Mini and pre-Cadet Championships in August, while Team Guyana will travel to Cuba for the Senior Caribbean Championship from April 2-8.
In the Developmental plans for next year the GTTA intends to focus on three main areas; High Performance Training, Table Tennis in the School with the emphasis on trying to get more Girls involved in the Sport and Organising more tournament for the Seniors.
The year-end Competition concludes today and day two is scheduled to start at 15:00hrs.
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