By Akeem Greene
‘No pain, no gain.’
It’s a popular idiom in sport, and its meaning is aptly demonstrated by the superlative success of Guyana’s Table Tennis superstar, Chelsea Edghill.
Balancing the hectic life of school, travel and her beloved sport Table Tennis, Edghill puts in the long hours to reap rewards.
Apart from graduating with Lindenwood University in Missouri, USA, with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry recently, she booked Guyana’s lone qualification spot for the Pan American Games Table Tennis Singles.
In a gruelling seven-set match, she got the better of Paraguay’s Lucero Ovelar (9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9) on Saturday evening at the qualification tournament in Guatemala.
She had earlier defeated Costa Rica’s Fiorella Vallecillo and Rheann Chung from Trinidad and Tobago, the number three seed.
After the match she stated: “I’m really happy; I played my best in the final. Lucero played very well, but at the end I was able to win. I know Lima it´s going be a very high level competition so I just have to be ready.”
That one moment of joy or correct return or perfect serve does not materialise overnight, but rather through years of arduous work.
President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), Godfrey Munroe expressed his elation on learning of Edghill’s success, and underlined it was no surprise given her work ethics.
“Truly elated by her qualification. It has been a tremendous achievement for her pursuing academic studies while pursuing sporting excellence. Her performance is a testimony of her skill, sacrifice, motivation, determination (and) support,” Munroe related News Room Sport.
He added, “What would be critical at this juncture, more particularly in Chelsea’s case, is mapping out her preparation for the Pan Am Games in August 2019 in high yield training environments in addition to her teammates preparation for the Pan Am Cup, which our male and female teams would have qualified.”
“What the trials have revealed is that in this global sporting arms race there is need for so much more investment. It should be noted players from Guatemala were in Germany; players from Ecuador were in Spain; Germany in Slovenia and Croatia, and Honduras in Taipei as part of preparation.”
Guyana’s other attendees, Shemar Britton, Christopher Franklin and Trenace Lowe, seeded number one, did not make the cut; however, Lowe was placed on the reserve list.
“While hopeful that we would have gotten more qualification spots from the quartet of representatives, in context I must outlined that I was also pleased with the other members’ performance based on their competitiveness.”
“Also these performances by the team truly puts a spotlight on Guyana’s table tennis on the international scene.”
Some 23 male players and 19 female players from the Pan American region vied for qualification spots.
The Pan-Am Games will be staged from July 26 to August 11 in Lima, Peru.
