GTTA names Caribbean Pre and Mini Cadet team

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has named Guyana’s prospective representative team members to the 2017 Caribbean Pre and Mini Cadet Table Tennis Championship, scheduled for August 21-28 at the National Arena, Kingston, Jamaica.

“The players selected represent some of Guyana’s next generation of our most talented, disciplined and brightest prospects for the future,” the GTTA said in a release on Thursday.

The Caribbean Pre and Mini Cadet championship engages players between ages 11 and 13 years and is a signature tournament on the regional calendar of events. It forms the basis for regional Table Tennis supremacy and the commencement of the journey of many young talents into the international arena.

Additionally, it serves to provide the platform for the technical and tactical development of players in addition to the opportunity for players to win medals and match and assess their skills with other Caribbean counterparts. It also allows the associations to lobby for international support among other benefits. 

“These players represent Guyana’s next prospects to transition as possible representatives of Guyana at regional and international tournaments, Junior Olympics and Junior Olympic cycle games in the future,” the GTTA further stated.

The team will begin training as unit from today (July 20) at the National Gymnasium from 13:00h to 17:00h under the tutelage of coaches Linden Johnson, Dwain Dick, Xenophon Goliath and Idi Lewis under a structured and rigid training programme aimed at having them perform optimally at this tournament.

Guyana will compete against Puerto Rico, Barbados, Aruba, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, The Dominican Republic and French Guiana among others.

“The competition takes on an added dimension with the hosting of a training camp being conducted under the auspices of the Latin American Table Tennis Union for the 11 years and under participants from August 14 to 19, which will see the best two 11 years and under Boys and Girls being selected from the Caribbean to participate in the Latin American World Hopes Training Camp,” the GTTA outlined. Below is the Guyana team.  

Boys: Dhanesh Persaud, Krystian Sahadeo, Colin Wong, Alexander DeAbreu, Kaysan Ninvalle, Isiah Layne and Jonathon Van Lange. Girls: Tatyana Mohamed, Rozeanna Saunders, Thuraia Thomas and Shorana Roberts.

Coach and Management Personnel: Linden Johnson, Idi Lewis, Dwain Dick, Maurice Cummings, Xenophon Goliath, Kennard Sahadeo, Munniram Persaud and Candacy McKenzie. 

Manager Delegates: Daniel Thomas and Kamala Vanlange. Manager Chaperone: Dawn Chung Layne and Michael Layne.