Caribbean Table Tennis Championships…

– Van Lange to lead juniors

GUYANA will serve off its participation in the Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships next week in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The competition will run from April 16 to 21 and will see the locals competing in the singles, doubles, mixed and team events for top honours.

Guyana’s team features Shemar Britton, Niran Bissu, Joel Alleyne and Elishaba Johnson in the men’s category while the ladies will be led by Olympian Chelsea Edgill and includes Jasmine Billingy, Thuraia Thomas and Natalie Cummings.
Last year Guyana finished third in the men and women to qualify for the Pan American (PAN AM) and Central America and Caribbean (CAC) games.
Head of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Godfrey Munroe said that it’s a balanced unit which he expects to give good account of themselves.

He said, “The plan is to maintain that (bronze medal performance) at least. New to the team Niron Bissu, who will be making his debut, the hope is to continue budding new set of players as we get the opportunity. Christopher Franklin, the national champion is not available [for the games.]”
According to Munroe, getting the team to the games was a task.

“[We are] quite pleased to be able to send the team, quite a herculean task with the price for tickets escalating and even the accommodation, but we were able to seek funding. We managed to secure the (support) of the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, National Sports Commission, Guyana Olympic Association along with other partners,” the GTTA boss added.

The added benefit of the tournament according to Munroe will be to give likes of Edghill, Britton and Cummings good quality competition ahead of their engagements in the coming months in Lima Peru for the Olympic qualification ahead of the Paris 2024 summer games.

The country’s top players worked individually before training for the past month together in preparation for the championship under Cuban coach Duary Cisneros Yasel and coach Linden Johnson.
Among the confirmed countries for the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships are Barbados, Trinidad, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti Jamaica and St Lucia.

Juniors also in the mix
Meanwhile Munroe also shared that the GTTA has earmarked a team to compete in the junior division of the Caribbean tournament which also runs from the 23rd to 29th in the Dominican Republic
“Jonathan [Van Lange] will be leading that squad, they were the silver medalist squad last year and the hope is to repeat or surpass that,” Munroe said.
The junior team is made up of Van Lange, Colin Wong, Krystian Sahadeo, and Malachi Moore along with Thuraia Thomas, Jasmine Billingy, Samara Sukhai and Akira Watson.

Thuria Thomas will also play in the female under 19 girls’ singles, her final year in the youth division
While Jasmine Billingy, Akira Watson and Samara Sukhai will compete in the under 15 girls category.
The youngsters will be led by coach linden Johnson and will depart in a weeks’ time while the seniors will depart next week.