Members of Guyana’s national Men’s and Women’s table tennis team will depart on Tuesday (February 27), en route to Havana, Cuba, to participate in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC Games) qualification event.
The Guyanese are hoping to qualify for the 2018 CAC Games, scheduled for July 19 to August 3 in Barranquilla, Colombia. The qualification event is scheduled for February 28 to March 4 and the Latin American table tennis championships are scheduled for March 4-9.
The seven-member Guyana team comprises Christopher Franklin, Nigel Bryan, Shemar Britton, Joell Alleyne, Natalie Cummings, Jody-Ann Blake and Trenace Lowe.
The qualification event will see 13 teams on the Men’s side and nine Women’s teams from CAC region vying for qualification. Guyana will be missing the services of national women’s champion Chelsea Edghill, who is currently engaged in final year studies overseas.
“Importantly is that the qualifiers will also serve as a key preparation and warm-up event based on fact that several of the selected players for the qualifiers are also selected for the Commonwealth Games, which will again a serve as great preparation and also help our team members players will pick up much needed world ranking points heading into the Commonwealth Games,” the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) said in a release.
The GTTA added, “More strategically is that the team made up of nucleus of players selected for the Commonwealth Games will also be participating in the Latin American table tennis championships scheduled for the 4th to 9th March 2018. The team has been hard in training for these games and our prospects for CAC qualification and medal chances are quite good.”
The GTTA further stated, “More strategically is that with the series of events slated for the year which revolves around our teams participation in the Commonwealth Games, South America Games, the Latin America TT championships and with our plans to have some of our key players attend a high yield training camp in Germany leading into the CAC games. We feel this will truly provide a great opportunity to have our players actively involved in high level competition and training, which will provide continuity in our player’s competition and training regimen which will significantly improve our medal prospects for the CAC games and the senior Caribbean championships.”
The GTTA would like to express appreciation and thanks to the Guyana Olympic Association and Connections Travel Service for assisting the association efforts in getting the team to Cuba.
