-DR, Puerto Rico and Jamaica among confirmed countries

SEVERAL big names, including the likes of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica have confirmed their participation for the Caribbean Mini and Pre Cadet Table Tennis Championships, which is scheduled to serve off on Friday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

According to information from the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname will also travel for the event, which runs until next Wednesday, October 19.

Guyana was slated to host the tournament in 2020 before the pandemic started.
To this end, President of the GTTA, Godfrey Monroe explained that due to the postponement over the last two years, “the competition has taken on a different level of importance to regional table tennis development”.

He said that this year’s championship provides Guyana the opportunity, as host, to expose and showcase 32 of the country’s pre cadet players (eight boys and eight girls in the 11-years-and-under category) and a similar amount in the 13-years-and-under category.

This, he explained, will help to enhance the skills of a new generation of players.
“The GTTA has selected some of its emerging, talented, disciplined and brightest prospects to represent Guyana at this engagement.”

Some of the big names include Jasmine Billingy, Samara Sukhai and Akira Watson, along with Malachi Moore, Ebo Mc Neil and Darius Daniels.
The association’s plan is to use the championship as a catalyst to jump start, synchronise and market Guyana’s national cadet and its other development programmes.

Munroe also spoke about the fruitful collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the National Sports Commission in developing nursery table tennis programmes.
Schools have also been invited to witness the championships to spur additional interest in the sport.

Both divisions of the tournament, will have boys and girls team events, singles, doubles and mixed doubles clashes.
Matches will start with team events, doubles and mixed doubles and conclude with singles in the respective age categories. The first set of matches will start on Friday with the formal Opening slated for Saturday October 15 at 15:00 hours.