Third national title a test of Franklin’s growth under Cuban coach

National Table Tennis player, Christopher Franklin, won his third consecutive senior Men’s title when the Guyana Table Tennis Association staged the Senior Championships last weekend at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Ahead of an Olympic Games qualifying tournament in April, Franklin felt it was a good test to gauge himself and teammates readiness for the major event.

Speaking to News Room Sport, the seasoned player stated that while winning is quite a big achievement, the real joy was to see how much he would have improved through the teachings of Cuban High Performance coach, Osdani Romero Garcia. Garcia had a two-month stint in Guyana late last year.

“The tournament means a lot to me. It is always a good feeling to get a win at the start of the year, especially since I have been training for the last couple of months with the Cuban coach. It presented a unique opportunity to see where the training took me in terms of my level and that was my major focus.”

Olympic trials will be held in Argentina from April 14-19, while Senior Caribbean Championships are slated for April 2-8 in Cuba.

At the Olympic trials, only two players are allowed to play the Singles. There will be four spots available and two players from each country are vying for the spots.

With the senior championships being the first real test of match time for Franklin since Pan American qualifiers in May 2019, he hopes the Cuban coach returns this month for Team Guyana to ramp up preparation for the overseas engagements.

Franklin along with Shemar Britton, whom the former defeated in this year’s final 4-1, and Joel Alleyne and Nigel Bryan should form the core of the Men’s team for those senior championships.