GPF questions Bryan’s non-selection on Commonwealth Games table tennis team

THE Guyana Police Force (GPF), yesterday, issued a press release questioning the non-selection of reigning national men’s under 21 champion Nigel Bryan on the table tennis team selected to represent Guyana at the upcoming Commonwealth Games that begins at the end of this month in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Having been made aware of the male players who comprise the table tennis team on Guyana’s delegation for the upcoming commonwealth games… the Guyana Police Force is expressing its concern and surprise at the omission of Nigel Bryan, current national table tennis under-21 men’s champion and men’s open champion, and who is also a member of the Police Force,” the statement said.

The GPF expressed its disappointment that Bryan has “been overlooked for the opportunity of representing his country at the Commonwealth Games.”

Citing Bryan’s most recent accomplishments, which also included a win against Shamar Britton, who has been selected on the team, the Force inquired as to the criteria that were utilised for the selection of players for the team that would leave the young Immigration Officer off the team.

Guyana will be represented by eight players in the table tennis segment of the Commonwealth Games.
The team, selected by the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), includes Chelsea Edghill, Natalie Cummings, Jody-Ann Blake, and Trenace Lowe on the female side, while the men’s team is made up of Idi Lewis, Christopher Franklin, Paul David, and Shamar Britton, the latter two of whom recently completed training stints in China.

According to the release, “the selection of Christopher Franklyn and Idi Lewis in front of National Champion Nigel Bryan is also questionable since they have not competed in any local tournament for the past two years.”

The commentary continued by saying that, “we are of the view that the selection criteria may not have been fairly applied and we are left with the opinion that there may be some collusion aimed at keeping this very talented young player out of the team selected and possibly the sport itself.

However, when contacted late Friday evening President for the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe, stated that Bryan’s omission from the team had justifiable basis as the Association initially had other plans for Bryan.

“I don’t want it to seem like there is anything contentious, it is not a case that we have anything against Nigel, we have plans for all of these players,” Munroe said.

Munroe, who will also be accompanying the Commonwealth Games team in the capacity of team manager, said it is not a case that Bryan was forgotten but that the Association “had a different pathway” for Bryan as he was initially selected for another event.
“We had a different pathway for him [Nigel], it is just that it got rescheduled. We had selected Nigel for the Caribbean Championships, we thought that level of competition would have given him a good chance to represent his under 21 title.
That competition was supposed to be at the same time as the Games but the Caribbean Championships was rescheduled to a later date in September,” Munroe relayed.

Justifying the selection of Lewis, Franklin, and David, Munroe said “all of those players have pedigree”, while he expanded that Britton’s selection was merited based on his training stint in China.
“Shamar’s inclusions would be because he went to China. When we sent Shamar to China they said why we didn’t send Nigel but it was for junior players,” Munroe said, referencing the “Road to Naijing” Training Camp which Britton had attended last month in China.

Munroe maintained that he believes that the selected team will put forth Guyana’s “best representation” at the event.

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