SENIOR Sportswoman of the Year (2018), Chelsea Edghil, booked Guyana’s lone qualification spot for the Pan American Games Table Tennis Singles when she claimed a narrow victory on Saturday evening in Guatemala.

The 21-year-old, who graduated from Lindenwood University in Missouri, USA with a BSc in Chemistry this month, battled back against a strong Paraguayan player to win the second leg of the qualification, which earned her a spot at the July-August Games in Lima, Peru.
Guyana’s top four players (Christopher Franklin, Shemar Britton, Trenace Lowe and Edghill) all attempted to qualify for the games, and although they played hard and did achieve some success, only Edghill was able to get the important win in the second knockout.

The qualification system had three trials with the top two players from each trial succeeding, before the remaining names were re-drawn for the subsequent round.
Although Edghill was seeded number two, just behind Lowe, Lucero Ovelar was favourite to defeat her in their decisive clash. The US-based Guyanese lost the first game 9-11, before she won 11-5, 11-8 and 11-7, but Ovelar battled back to draw even (3-3) at 11-8 and 11-7. The former Caribbean U21 champion kept her composure to win the final game 11-9.

‘SUPER FOCUSED’
“In the match, the goal was to remain super focused and play one point at a time,” the former Bishops’ High School student told the Guyana Chronicle. “Not thinking about the point lost before and the one ahead, just the point I was about to play. In the 7th game, the strategy was to start early, and remain calm and confident and not have doubts about any shot.”

Franklin, who lost twice to Guatemala’s Heber Moscoso, first in the round of 16 (4-2) on the first day, before losing to him in the second tournament 4-3, bounced back on day three to defeat players from Costa Rica (4-1) and Bolivia (4-3), before he was defeated by Venezuelan Marco Navas, who qualified for the games.
Britton also lost to Moscoso (1-4) in the final round. The Guatemalan also booked a spot to Peru.

In the final round, Lowe also fell in a deciding clash against Trinidadian Rheann Chung.
Since Lowe and Franklin had lost in the virtual final, they had chances to make the reserves, but they were defeated in their playoff matches against Barbados’ Tyrese Knight and El Salvador’s Monica Mendoza.

Twenty-three males from Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Panama, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts, Honduras, Guatemala and Barbados and 19 females from Guyana, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Barbados, St Kitts and Honduras were vying for qualification spots.