Bishpham doing well in Canada's table tennis
By Donald Duff
Stabroek News
May 21, 2002
Former national junior table tennis champion Anson Bishpham is creating waves in Canada and the United States of America.
Bishpham, the former Queen's College student is attending the University of Ottawa where he is pursuing a degree in accounting.
Despite his studies Bishpham is still active in the celluloid sport and was invited to train at the National Training centre in Canada where players like Pradeeban Peter-Paul, Bence Csaba, Fazil Kassam and Xavier Thieren usually train.
"Since playing at the Training Centre I have noticed significant improvement in my game especially my backhand. I have also changed my style of play a bit with the help of new Canadian national coach Dejan Papic," he says.
Papic is famous for the early development of world rated players Ilija Lupulescu and Zoran Primorac.
According to Bishpham his Canadian rating has improved from 2200 to 2700 while his US rating has moved from 2300 to 2600. That makes Bishpham the highest rated Guyanese players, above even Paul David who was the previous highest rated Guyanese player in the US at 2550.
Bishpham was also selected on a number of Canadian national teams which participated in international tournaments.
In January this year, he participated in the Slovenian and Austrian Open tournaments.
"The Slovenian Open held in Velenje, served as an eye opener for me, " he said.
The Austrian Open was his second Pro Tour event.
Bishpham took part in the 2001 Baltimore Open in Maryland, USA where he recorded wins over US national team player Ashu Jain and Puerto Ricans Juan Revelles and Luis Ruiz both world ranked around 500 and Abner Colon.
"I've also had results in Canadian tournaments," he said pointing out that he has won three out of the last five Canada Cup under-21 titles.
One of Bishpham's biggest wins came in a defeat of former World ranked player Eric Boggan at the Spin Open.
However, Bishpham says his biggest achievement is earning a spot on the Canadian North American Senior team where only four seniors are selected to represent Canada against the US.
At that tournament Bishpham was defeated Mark Hazinski ranked number seven in the US.
At present Bishpham is rated 611 in the world.