FOLLOWING Guyana’s excellent showing at the 2018 Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships which concluded in Jamaica on September 22, four of Guyana’s National table tennis players – Natalie Cummings, Joel Alleyne, Nigel Bryan and Elishaba Johnson will depart Guyana today for China to participate in a one-month high level training camp at the Hebei Zhengding Table Tennis Training Centre, China.

The team members will depart on a Caribbean Airlines flight at 10:20hrs to Fort Lauderdale en route to China, They will arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 15:35hrs, overnight and depart Fort Lauderdale at 07:00hrs tomorrow for China via Delta Airlines, and will arrive in China on Sunday (November 25) at 17:10hrs.

The critical high-level table tennis training programme being offered to eight of Guyana’s national table tennis team members is facilitated through the support of the Government of the People’s Republic of China Embassy in Guyana, through current technical and diplomatic engagements with the Guyana Table Tennis Association in tandem with Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is aimed at supporting and improving the performance and development of Guyana’s table tennis. This engagement signals the commencement and forms part of the many initiatives to be unfolded between China and Guyana aimed at improving Guyana’s table tennis prospects.

The GTTA had selected Miguel Wong, Nicholas Romain, Kyle Edghill and Jamal Nicholas as the other members to benefit from this engagement. However, this group will be the first set undertaking the training programme.

The members attending the programme have made tremendous sacrifices for this engagement. They underwent intense practice over the last few months in preparation for this training programme in order to be ready to maximally benefit from the training engagement.

In a release to the media, the GTTA said it “has recognised and identified that there is a critical need to reorient the culture and process of training in the psyche of our national team representatives, at all levels, and for them to commence training and play in high-yield competitive environments similar to international peers, in order for them to bridge the gap and excel in regional and international competitions in the future”.

The Hebei Zhengding International Table Tennis Club has a repertoire of high level and quality players and coaches. It is the centre for China’s national table tennis team and many international players and has a tradition of producing world-level players at junior and senior levels.

The programmes offered are very intense; players train and practise hours eight (8) hours a day benefiting from a wide range of coaching expertise that is available, while a variety of top-level players and practice partners train there.

In addition, competitive matches are played in leagues which allow players to develop their technical and tactical proficiency transitioning them to reach and exploit their fullest potential.

This is the current formula being utilised by all top-level players and nations internationally as their basis for success and has been proving successful for players and teams adopting this approach.

With Guyana scheduled to host the 2019 Caribbean Table Tennis Championships and, based on the International Table Tennis Federation’s assigning this competition as the Pan American games qualification event to select four teams from the Caribbean region to participate in the 2019 Pan American games, the training camp is critical.

By extension, the 2019 Pan American Games is one of the key qualification events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Therefore it has given greater importance to Guyana’s hosting of the Caribbean championships and the push to have players benefit from training in addition to being well prepared for these types of arrangements.

The Guyana Table Tennis Association extended appreciation to Charge de Affaires Mr Chen Xillai, His Excellency Cui JianChun – Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Mrs Wang Qiuyi, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, Guyana Olympics Association, Guyana Power Producers and Distributors, Dwayne Munroe – CEO Dominion Enterprises, Guyana Revenue Authority and all who assisted in making this venture a reality.