GUYANESE Chelsea Edghill’s bid to participate at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan next year will see the sensational table tennis player having to go through a stringent qualification process.

However, as part of her Olympic Qualification preparation, the country’s current National sportswoman-of-the-year will be participating in the Finland Open Table Tennis Championships.

The championships, a ITTF-sanctioned world circuit event, served off yesterday and will conclude on December 9, and will include many players from Europe.

Coming off her recent qualification and participation in the 2019 Pan American Games Lima, Peru, Edghill attended the championship in Finland with her coach Tony Rato of Portugal and will compete in women’s singles events.

According to the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), her participation represents the first time a player from Guyana will be participating in a Senior World circuit event.

Meanwhile, GTTA in a release said following her participation in the Finland tournament, Edghill will travel to Romania to train and play in competitions before returning to Portugal to prepare for other key engagements.

This tournament, GTTA noted, is also geared towards assessing the progress made in the implementation of several new elements of her game in high-level competitive environment and picking up valuable ranking points.

“Part of her identified road map for Olympic training and possible qualification, based upon our limited budget, entails participation in the German and Portugal Open, continued training Portugal, training in China, participation in the Caribbean Championships leading up the continental qualification event to Tokyo 2020 competition in Teams, Singles and Mixed qualification and is scheduled for April 2020,” the GTTA added.

Edghill, a former junior Olympian, and recent graduate from the Lindenwood University with a Degree in Chemistry, has an extensive resumé with several junior sports women’s titles.

She is the national champion, Caribbean women’s U-21 champion, Caribbean women’s doubles champion, Caribbean women’s bronze medallist, several collegiate tournament wins, Caribbean Cadet and junior champion, Caribbean women’s team silver medallist 2018 and 2019, and is currently training and playing in Portugal under the tutelage and guidance of coach Tony Rato; Portugal’s junior coach and as a member of the Lusitania de Lourosa table tennis Club Portugal.

“The GTTA would like to extend thanks to the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) for assisting Chelsea in her quest for possible Olympic qualification,” the release said.