By Rawle Toney in Birmingham want
THE two highest-ranked table tennis players from Guyana, Shemar Britton and Chelsea Edghill, are hoping for improved performances at the Commonwealth Games this time around.

Guyana’s table tennis contingent will head into battle on Friday (July 29) on Day One of competition, where they will compete in the team event.

For Britton, the games in Birmingham, England, will be his third following his debut in 2014 (Scotland) and 2018 in Australia. Edghill, on the other hand, is returning to the Commonwealth Games for the second time since turning out in 2014.

Both Guyanese are also the highest-ranked players in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Currently ranked 265 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Britton told Chronicle Sport yesterday that at the start of this year, his target was to finish 2022 in the top 200, adding “I got to 261, so I’m hoping that before the year ends I go to the top 200.”

Britton, like the rest of Team Guyana at the previous Commonwealth Games, had a good performance before he was edged out by Canada’s Antoine Bernaden in the preliminary round.

“Last time I lost in a pretty hard match in the decider, this time I want to go at least to the round of 16 and I think I have the capabilities to do that,” Britton said.

As it relates to Guyana’s overall performance at the Commonwealth Games, Britton noted, “We have history, since my first Commonwealth Games, in 2014, we’ve always finished in the top 10 teams. We want to finish in the top four this time around. We know it’s a big goal but we’re positive.” mull
Meanwhile, Chelsea Edghill, who created Caribbean history when she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, said one of her goals this time around “is to surpass my last games that I attended in 2014 – to execute what I’ve been learning at the training camps in Germany and Portugal the last few months”.

All eyes will be on Edghill in Birmingham, since she has racked-up one of the most impressive table tennis resumés in the English-speaking Caribbean, where she became the Region’s first-ever female Olympian in the sport.

Asked about living up to expectations, Edghill highlighted, “Everyone will have expectations of me, but I think at this point in time what matters are the goals that I’ve set for myself and the goals that my team would’ve set for me – my coaches. It’s just a matter of managing those expectations and going out there and giving my best.”

TABLE TENNIS:
Men – Shemar Britton (Singles, Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles), Christopher Franklin (Singles, Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles), Johnathan Van Lange (Singles, Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles) and Joel Alleyne (Doubles, Team).

Women – Chelsea Edghill (Singles, Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles), Natalie Cummings (Singles, Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles), Priscilla Greaves (Singles, Doubles, Team) and Thuraia Thomas (Doubles, Team, Mixed Doubles).