TT players fail to qualify for Pan Am Games
Stabroek News
April 21, 2003
Guyana's table tennis players failed to qualify for the Pan American Games but there is a possibility that Guyana can be offered a wild card enabling a player to participate at the August 1-17 event in Santo Domingo.
Idi Lewis narrowly failed to qualify after losing his semifinal playoff to former Caribbean men's singles champion Robert Roberts of Barbados 4-3 in a hard fought encounter. Lewis led Roberts 3-2 in games at one stage. He also lost to Cuba's R. Sosa 4-1.
Lewis, however, scored wins over Kevin Farley of Barbados 4-1, Christopher Marsh of Jamaica 4-3, Andy Gomez of Aruba 4-0 and chopper Abner Colon of Puerto Rico 4-2 after being down 2-0 in the earlier rounds.
The other player Godfrey Munroe reached the quarter-finals where he lost to Puerto Rico's Juan Revelles also by a 4-3 score.
Munroe also led his opponent by 3 games to 2 at one stage.
Munroe dropped another match to P. Oxsmendy of Cuba by a 4-2 score.
His wins came against Donald Corriette of Dominica 4-2, H. Berrios of Puerto Rico 4-2 and M. Lobo of Aruba 4-3 in the earlier rounds.
Munroe, who also served as a delegate, made representation to the Latin Federation, through president of the Latin Union Miguel Delgado for Guyana to receive a wild card entry based on the performance of the Guyanese players. He told Stabroek Sport that this should be ratified in another two weeks.
"The progress of this will be constantly monitored and an update on any developments will be given to the GOA," Munroe said.
The Guyana team was unable to participate in the Latin American Games due to their late arrival in El Salvador because of visa problems and were only able to participate in the Caribbean zone of the Pan Am qualifiers.
One of the players Dennis France suffered as a result of the visa acquisition. France, who left for El Salvador via Venezuela was stranded at a Venezuelan airport and forced to return home missing the championships.
This was because he was not in possession of a valid United States visa which would have allowed him to travel via Miami with the other team members.
Those qualifying from the Caribbean zone were the two Cuban participants Oxsmende and Sosya and Barbados and reigning Caribbean men's singles champion Trevor Farley of Barbados.
