… National Schools TT tourney

MAE’S A and B teams, Central High and Queen’s College A and B teams have all made it into the quarterfinals of the Novices category of the National Schools Table Tennis.

The Novices segment was played last Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and will continue on Friday when the actual tournament serves off at the same venue.

The three-day is expected to attract approximately 20 schools from across the country and registration will close this evening. The annual competition, sponsored by Digicel, was scheduled to start one week earlier but unforeseen events forced the organisers, the Guyana Table Tennis Association to reschedule.

This year the GTTA included an Open Novices category for beginners with the aim of encouraging more participation in the sport.

The National Schools competition is geared at fostering camaraderie among students, promoting healthy lifestyle through sport, providing opportunities for individuals to participate in recreational activities and promoting the basic objectives of the GTTA by having more players actively participate in table tennis activities, both recreationally and competitively.

GTTA general secretary Linden Johnson said that the best of Guyana’s youth players would be on show during the competition which concludes on Sunday. Last year St Stanislaus College captured gold in the Under-18 category while Marian Academy carted off the top prize at the Under-15 level.

Mae’s School proved too strong in the Pre and Mini Cadet categories, by sweeping both the Under-13 and Under-11 divisions.

Meanwhile, GTTA is planning to stage the National Senior and Junior competition early in December.  The National Table Tennis competition was not held last year due to difficulty in securing sponsorship. However, the secretary is confident that if all goes well players will be vying for national titles by the second week in December.

Johnson disclosed that it would be important to hold the competition before Mini Cadets and Pre Cadets leave to represent Guyana at the Caribbean Championship billed for Puerto Rico from December 16 to 20.