Ten umpires who were recently accredited by the International table Tennis Federation (ITTF)departed Guyana on the 6th October 2016 overland for Suriname to officiate in the 1st Dutch Colony Table Tennis championships scheduled for the 7th -8th Oct. in Paramaribo Suriname.
The team consists of:Ryan Narine, Shavin Greene, Debra Bacchus, Xenophiah, Maurice Cummings, Candace Mc Kenzie, Raynor Hilary Anderson, Waren Hackshaw and Leona Kyte
The tournament will be played among teams from Suriname, Curacao, Aruba, and Bonaire in team singles, doubles and mix doubles events to determine who is the best among the former Dutch colonies.
According to President of the Suriname Table Tennis Association,Mr. Desire Hooghart, the tournament will become an annual feature hosted on a rotational basis aimed at further developing the sport in the former Dutch colonies and with a view to making those countries competitive internationally.
In an unprecedented first for Guyana, the 10 umpires who were recently certified under the ITTF basic Umpire and Referee training program conducted by Ms Silvia Garro,will form the nucleus of officials who will officiate in the competition.
The tournament provides an opportunity for the umpires to further harness their skills moving along a path towards becoming International umpires , which will make them more eligible to officiate in international competitions around the world . The engagement will truly serve to enhance and improve the tournament coordination capacity in Guyana
Further,the presence of theses umpires is key to Guyana presenting a good representation at this forum which is critical to paving the way for more umpires to be selected from Guyana for future international engagements by the ITTF.
The GTTA identifies tournament coordination and umpiring as key pillars upon which the sport must be built and made representation to the ITTF to host a Umpires and referees workshop earlier this year , with a central view to increase the amount of persons with tournament coordination and umpiring skills and to raise the standard and profile of the sport.
The Competition got underway yesterday morning and from all reports the Guyanese are doing a splendid job
Later in the year,the GTTA will be sending a few representatives to a Competition Manager program organized by the ITTF which will be conducted in Barbados.The program is scheduled for December 2016.