… Table tennis and badminton optimistic

GUYANA’S cyclists, competing at this year’s Inter-Guiana Games’ second leg in Suriname, believe that they have what it takes to win the championship ahead of today’s time trial. 

The team of Akeem Arthur, Shaquille Agard, Alonzo Ambrose, Kravitz Jeffrey, Toshwanna Doris and Ronella Samuels will take to the road today at 08:00hrs in an attempt to head into Sunday’s road race in a good position to better their Dutch and French rivals.
The males will cover a distance of 10 kilometres while the females will ride for six kilometres at Anton Dragtenweg.
National cycling coach Hassan Mohamed, speaking to Chronicle Sport after the team’s training session yesterday, expressed his delight at the prospects of Guyana winning the cycling championship, since he believes that they are equipped with some of the best riders in the Caribbean.
The long-serving National cycling coach believes that both Suriname and French Guiana stand no chance against his troops but voiced some concerns about the readiness of the females.
Guyana’s attack will be led by Alonzo Ambrose who copped bronze at the just concluded Caribbean Junior Cycling Championships held in Suriname while Arthur was a silver medallist at the 2013 event in Aruba.
The 2014 IGG’s second leg opened yesterday and Guyana, being champions of the first leg held in Georgetown earlier this year, are hoping to wrest the overall title from champions from Suriname.
Meanwhile, coach of Guyana’s badminton and table tennis teams, Gokarn Ramdhani and Linden Johnson, are optimistic thatf their contingents will come out successful at this year’s Inter-Guiana Games (IGG), currently on in Paramaribo, Suriname.
The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has selected its best juniors with St Stanislaus College’s Elishaba Johnson and Mae’s Kyle Edghill being the most notable of the four players, along with Priscilla Greaves of Marian Academy and Salinas Jackman as their team members.
The Ramdhani siblings, Narayan and Priyanna, will spearhead a strong badminton team that also includes their Marian Academy school mates Krystal Peters and Jonathan Mangra as well as Ambika Ramraj of Queen’s College.
This is the first time in the game’s 40-year history that badminton is being played among the three countries (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) and according to Gokarn Ramdhani; his only concern is that his players are outmatched age-wise.
The elder Ramdhani, who also sits as the president of the Guyana Badminton Association, pointed out that his players are 17 and under while their rivals are all 19-year-olds.
Nonetheless, he said his players are up to the challenge and the upbeat badminton coach is pleased with his team’s preparation ahead of today’s championship which starts at 10:00hrs.
Meanwhile, Johnson and his table tennis delegation are only fearful of the French who he says are equipped with players with exposure of playing in France and other parts of the world. Johnson opined that nonetheless, his players are fully prepared for whatever the competition brings.
“The players are all ready to go tomorrow (today) and they are certain about winning as well. There’s one particular player from French Guiana that I’m a little worried about because he’s very good. I saw him play against Nigel Bryan recently,” Johnson said.
Table tennis, like the other disciplines chose to expose their younger players but Johnson said age is not a factor at present, given the fact that his selected players are accustomed to playing against older opposition in Guyana.
Both table tennis and badminton will be played at the Table Tennis Centre Zinniastraat and the Chinese Sporthal respectively.

(By Rawle Toney in Suriname)