THE Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) is assessing the possibilities of hosting a tournament by the end of the month.

Its president, Godfrey Munroe, said that the association will look to follow all rules and regulations set by the Ministry of Health in order to ensure the safety of its players and officials.

“The athletes’ health, wellbeing and safety are of paramount importance to us, so we want to ensure we get this right as we venture out. In this regard, we will use the National COVID-19 Task Force and ITTF guidelines and will be using some independent health personnel to assist us with the review of our processes. We will also ensure that necessary approvals from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport are secured.”

If the GTTA can get over the hurdles, it aims to run off its next event from November 27.

Monroe noted that the games will be streamed online and although both national junior boys and junior girls and their senior counterparts will compete, the playing area would not be crowded.

He said that the intention is to invite players as they are scheduled to play, so the venue would not have more than six players at a time.

“Players will only come to the venue based on the schedule of matches ….We will have to have period of cleaning after each match, so space and time would have to be allowed between matches and for players to warm up.”

Additionally, the GTTA plans to limit the amount of players participating in the competition to also add to its social distancing policy.

The Men’s battle will be among the top 16 players who competed at the last Senior National Championships, while the Boys’ competition will include the top 16 juniors.  The Girls’ clash will be between the top eight junior females, while the Senior Females will be an open battle due to the small number of active local players.

At the moment, the tournament is without a sponsor, but Munroe noted that the association would work to get trophies for the juniors and cash incentives for the seniors.