Coach of the national table tennis team Sydney Christophe yesterday described the team's performance at the recent Caribbean table tennis championships as "encouraging."

The Guyana men's team placed 10th of 12 teams while the women's team ended in fifth place out of nine contesting teams, Christophe disclosed.

However, the coach said the men's team was without the services of national men's champion Godfrey Munroe. Munroe missed the team tournament because of work commitments but contested the invitational singles competition.

Additionally, the men's team consisted of rookie players Christopher Franklyn and Matthew Khan, who though of undoubted potential, found the competition a little too much in their inaugural showing.

The Guyana team was among the youngest at the tournament consisting of junior players Franklyn, Vida Moore and Jody Ann Blake and Khan, who only this year came out of the junior ranks.

Only Dennis France, among the men and Francine Abrams on the distaff side had previous exposure at the championships, Christophe said.

He, however feels that, with the encouraging showing of the young racquet wielders, should the proper mechanisms be put in place Guyana could reach the pinnacle of Caribbean table tennis.

Christophe lamented the fact that the women's team did not finish a bit higher.

He said the team could have won their first two ties against second-placed Guatemala and fourth-placed Barbados where they went down by 2-3 margins.

He gave credit to the team noting that the players rebounded well to defeat Trinidad, Guatemala and St Vincent.

The former Caribbean men's singles champion said however that El Salvador, in their first attendance at the championships, was simply a notch above the rest of the competition in the women's team tournament.

Christophe, who reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles competition said he did not play in the team tournament because, had he played then national champion Munroe would have been unable to play.

A team, he explained, could only consist of four players.

However, Christophe's performance in the singles competition proved that he has not lost his touch when he created one of the biggest upsets of the championships by knocking out the favourite Omar Flores of Guatemala before losing to Flores' team mate Alejandro Oviedo in the quarter-finals.

Flores had played unbeaten throughout the team tournament.

His performance of reaching the quarters was matched by Franklyn and Blake in the boys and girls under-20 competition respectively and by the France/ Moore combination in the mixed doubles.

Christophe suggested that the players should not rest on their laurels but begin training immediately for next year's tournament beginning with a rigorous physical training regimen.

He also feels that the players should play international matches before going to the championships to help them assess their game and to assist the coaches to spot and correct technical flaws.

The coach said he wanted to thank the Ministry of Culture, John Fernandes, Ansa Mc Al and members of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) all of whom assisted in making the team's participation at the annual tournament possible.