GUYANA’S National female team is will head to Busan, South Korea where they will take part in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) 2020 World Teams Table Tennis Championships.

According to president of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), Godfrey Munroe, having Guyana participate in this event is historic.

“This is significant for the Guyana’s table tennis brand since while male and female players have represented Guyana at the singles edition of the World Table Tennis Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2013, Guyana have never had a representative National team (male or female) at the World Championships.

This would represent the first time in the history of the sport in Guyana that a National team would participate as a unit at the World Championships.”

Munroe noted that he received the correspondence recently from ITTF World Tour Manager, Dimosthenis Messinis, that we had qualified for the March 22-29 event.

According to the long-serving GTTA administrator, the selection was made based on the proven results gained by the performance of the women team players.

“Previously teams and individual players could have been nominated by their respective federation, and play and participate in the World team and individual championships.

However, the new format of the ITTF provisions requires that teams and individual participation must be done through a continental qualification system/process which is based on results/wins in international competition, which makes the selection even more noteworthy, given that there is a quota system and process solely allowing for the best and elite teams in the world.”

Munroe noted that our top female players, including Caribbean bronze medal winner Trenace Lowe, former Caribbean U-21 champion Chelsea Edghill, current national champion Natalie Cummings, seasoned veteran Jody-Ann Blake and Priscilla Greaves have excelled in international competitions by claiming several team medals at the Caribbean level, Pan American Qualification (silver medal) and Commonwealth Games (quarterfinalists).

A release from the GTTA added that the championship would serve as a great preparation for the continental Olympic trials scheduled for April in Rosario, Argentina.