IDI Lewis, long-time coach of Chelsea Edghill, is confident that the Table Tennis ace will be ready for her first taste of Olympic competition on Saturday July 24 in the Women’s Singles event.
Edghill arrived in Japan on Saturday and had her first training session yesterday at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

“Chelsea is in great spirits and of course it’s an exciting time to be on this stage amongst the best in the world. We had our first training session and, surprisingly, it’s going better than I thought it would, factoring in the travel,” Lewis told Chronicle Sport in an exclusive interview from Japan.

Edghill, who also holds a BSc in Chemistry, having graduated in 2019 from Lindenwood University in the USA, plays professionally in Portugal with Lusitania de Lourosa; a table tennis club located in the city of Lourosa in Santa Maria da Feira.

When Edghill features at the 32nd Olympiad, she will become the first table tennis player, male or female, from Guyana and Lusitania de Lourosa to reach the Olympic Games.
Lewis and Edghill held daily training sessions since the former Caribbean U-21 Singles Champion had gotten the news that she picked up the lone female global selection from the Olympic Games Tripartite Commission (IOC/ANOC/ASOIF).

However, Edghill had departed Guyana for an over two weeks Elite Training Camp in California where she worked with other Olympians ahead of the games.
“I’m judging that we’re maybe 70 per cent, which is more than I thought it would be for our first training session because it’s a new arena, new tables and everything, so I think we’re doing better than I thought on our first day and I know that she’s going to keep getting better; so come the day of the competition, we definitely going to be ready to go,” Lewis said.

The country’s National Table Tennis coach also lauded the work done by the Guyanese delegation’s physio and COVID-19 personnel, Angelica Holder, adding “she has been an incredible support leading up to us getting here and even more so us being here.”