ROSIGNOL Secondary emerged as the champion school when the Region Five edition of the CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited GTTA Ministry of Education Nationwide National Schools Table Tennis Championships commenced last Wednesday in the auditorium of Bygeval Hall Secondary School at Mahaica.

The stage was set for an exciting day of table tennis competition, which truly stimulated and showcased the talent and potential for growth of the sport in the region and created a thirst and appetite for more table tennis activities across the region.
Budding with enthusiastic players from the registered schools from Rosignol Secondary Bygeval Secondary Bush Lot Secondary, Belladrum Sec Mahaicony Secondary and coordinated through support from the Regional Department of Education through Regional Education Officer Mrs Celeste La Rose REDO, Sir Mahendra Salik, Sir Kevon of Rosignol Sec, the head teacher of Bygeval Sec Regional Chair Sadiek Ishmael and the enthusiastic students from the various schools made for an exciting and talent-unearthing event.

The competition was played in the boys’ singles 18 and 15 years and under Girls' singles 18 years and under and Open Team Event. This saw over forty (40) entries in singles and team competitions. ITTF Level coach and Umpire Coach Candacy Mc Kenzie performed the role as tournament director. In the end, Rosignol Sec proved champions when they won most of the categories.
Results and Winners-row Results in Boys 18 Years and Under Round of 16
• Nathan Karachand Def Gavin Deolall 2-0 (11-3,1-5)
• Antwon Edmonds Def Joel Gordon 2-0 (11-3,11-5)
• Ethan Watson def Javid Sawh 2-0 (116,11-5)
• Vijay Kalpu def Fidel Millington 2-0 (11-6,11-7)
• Lakeraj Hemraj def Danesh Persaud 2-0 (11-4, 11-()
• Mikel Clark def Imran Resat (11-5,11-8)
• Aslam Khan def Reynaldo Mc Crae (11-6,11-8)
• Aaron Etwaru def Zackery Favorite (11-9,11-9)
Quarterfinals
• Nathan Karachand Def Antwon Edmonds (11-7,11-6)
• Vijay Kalpu def Ethan Watson (11-4,11-5)
• Lakeraj Hemraj def Mikel Clark (11-6,11-8)
• Aaron Etwaru def Aslam Khan (11-8,11-9) Semi-finals
• Nathan Karachand def Vijay Kalpu (11-7,7-11,12-10)
• Lakeraj Hemraj def Aaron Etwaru (11-6,11-8)

Finals
• Nathan Karachand def Lakeraj Hemraj (11-7,11-6)
• Champion Nathan Karachand
Girls 18 Years and Under Round Robin Finals
• Kiara Hamilton
• Marcia Joseph
• Tiffany Bailey
• Divyana Narine
• Lilyana Haroon
• Oscehia Harry
• Ist Place Divyanna Narine
• 2nd Place Kiara Hamilton
• 3rd Place Lilyana Haroon
• 3rd Place Oscehia Harry
Boys 15 Years and Under
• Joel Gordon Def Devonte Vaux (11-9,11-8)
• Akeem Barnes def Jushawn Maxwell (11-9,11-7)
• Akeem Barnes def Joel Gordon (9-11,11-7,11-8)
• 1st Place Akeem Barnes Champion
• 2nd Place Joel Gordon
• 3rd Place Jushawn Maxwell
• 3rd Place Devonte Vaux

Team Events Finals
Rosignol Secondary def Bygeval Secondary
Lakeraj Hemraj def Zackery Fuvainte (11-5,11-5)
Nathan Karachand def Vuai Kalpu (11-6,11-7)
N Karachand & L Hemraj def V Kalpu & Fuvainte (11-8,11-7)

The CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited GTTA Ministry of Education Nationwide National Schools Table Tennis Championships is the first ever national nationwide Schools
Table Tennis championships with a concept which provides Independent Regional Competitions held in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven and 10 and Georgetown geared towards crowning the
individual school’s team and singles champions, because of creating regional identity, independence, prestige, incentive and motivation, which will showcase all the champion teams
of Guyana.

The project and sponsorship also procured and provided tennis tables for the hinterland Regions One,Seven,Eight and Nine to provide training to help accelerate their development and in
instances where possible have the regions host/participate in the novices’ categories only.
These championships are critical to continuing the rich table tennis tradition and legacy of our country, in ensuring that our respective age-group champions are crowned annually
and that there is a system that continues to produce and engage players at the school level as a basis for providing a feeder system for talent development and national
representation

The competition sets the following as its key objectives and aims
• Serve as an incubator and provide the opportunity for new
talents to have an active platform to showcase and expose their talents and represent their schools.
• Re-establishing school championships as a basis for the GTTA’s development thrust by having more players actively participate in table tennis activities, both recreational and competitive.

• Re-establishing an active framework for school competitions through school leagues, team linkages of players to clubs regional hubs.
• Serve as a catalyst for creating a talent-identification development and incubation systems for the recruitment, training orientation development and teaching of life-long learned skills which will positively enhance the profile and marketability of the sport and impact higher performances and sustainability of the sport at the national and international levels.
• Identify recruit and train the best student- athletes/students from participating schools who exhibit the potential for growth because of selecting the best talents for training and high-performance programmes of the GTTA and for selection as possible prospects for national team
representation.

• Formation of school team clubs that will compete for inter-house inter-school regional and national championships in different age-group categories and levels
• Partnering with Regional Education Department sponsors and other stakeholders to establish relations and structures for the continued support, development and support of the sport.