SINCE the outbreak of COVID-19 which has plunged the sporting fraternity into uncertainty, there has been a fight to cautiously counter and integrate sport with the pandemic guidelines.

Locally, some Sports have been granted permission to resume activities bounded by the pandemic parameters and some have just remained dormant since no ‘on-field’ activities can be allowed.

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has been using the down time to carefully calculate the next move that will benefit the sport and its players.

With most of the International events that are attended by Guyana being provisionally cancelled, it has given the GTTA time to refocus their efforts to better construct a smoothly functioning association.

President of the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe, during an interview, said that it was very unfortunate that the pandemic halted a lot of plans. But the association has forged ahead under the pandemic guidelines to cover important ground work in other counties.

The fraternity held several sessions online, focusing on players technical and tactical training methods, umpiring courses and improving media presence and futuristic plans for table tennis in the country. They have also developed a Selection Criteria Provision and Policy Guidelines, Policy, directives on coach’s disciplinary matters and a Tournament coordination which is due quite soon.

Also, among those plans was to integrate with his players once again because it had yielded a lot of success previously.

In 2019, the GTTA acquired the services of Cuban, Osdani Romero Garcia, an ITTF level one certified coach who worked with the local table tennis playing contingent for two months. This initiative was done through diplomatic engagements with the Cuba Table Tennis Confederation Development Support Program.

The GTTA boss said that Garcia will not be able to repeat his trade in Guyana because of the no-fly policy which has seen the country of Cuba ban flights from several countries as they try to keep the pandemic under control.

Meanwhile, Munroe believes while steps are being taken to move forward during the pandemic, everything they are to do will be temporary.