THE Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) last Sunday held a Pre-cadet tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) to select from players shortlisted to participate in the Caribbean Pre-Cadet championship, scheduled for July 19-25 in the Dominican Republic.
The Pre-cadet championship covers players in the Under-10 and Under-13 categories for both boys and girls.
Guyana have had many successes in these categories in previous international competitions, with Chelsea Edgehill winning the Girls’ Under-13 title in Puerto Rico this year, while Elishaba Johnson, Kyle Edghill and Rajin Muneshwar won the Boys’ team title in 2009.
The Pre-cadet is part of the new ITTF global initiative, aimed at exposing players internationally at a younger age and bridging the gap in terms of the levels of players internationally.
There are many new players interested in these categories, such as Khalid Gobin, Rajiv Muneshwar, Shemar Britton, Jordan Conway, Miguel Wong who all competed in the Boys’ Under-13 division alongside the more established players in Johnson and Kyle Edghill.
The Girls’ Under-10 division saw an emergence of new talents in national badminton champion Priyanna Ramdhani, Abigale Martin, and Amoscia Booker while in the Girls’ Under-13 years division the team likely to be selected would be Priscilla Greaves, Jamantli Hover, Kristee Logo and Anna Jago.
The highlights of some of the pre-cadet playoff matches were as follows:

Boys’ Under-13 Shemar Britton (4 wins), Rajiv Muneswhar (3 wins 1 loss) and Miguel Wong, Khal;id Gobin and Jordon Conway with one win and three losses each.
Girls’ Under-10 Priyanna Ramdhani (2 wins) and Abigail Martin and Amoscia Booker have one win and one loss each.     
President of the GTTA and Commissioner of Police, Mr Henry Greene, DSS, witnessed some of the playoff matches. The GTTA’s Selection Committee will meet and ratify the final composition of the respective teams.