Ministry to help develop table tennis
By Isaiah Chappelle
Guyana Chronicle
July 23, 2003
On parade. Officials and players of the three countries present - Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados. (Delano Williams photo).
MINISTER of Sport Gail Teixeira formally declared open the 10th Caribbean & Central America Table Tennis Championships, in an unglittering ceremony at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
However, just three teams were on parade - Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and hosts Guyana. St Vincent & the Grenadines and French Guiana were still expected.
Minister Teixeira welcomed the visitors to the country and the members of the business community who came on board to fund the event. She extended a special welcome to PNC/R parlimentarian Vincent Alexander.
The minister said table tennis was a great game because it can be played almost anywhere, recalling the time she learnt the game by playing on a dining table as a child, thus to start playing, it was an inexpensive game.
The Minister pointed out that Guyana had a rich history in the game, naming some of the great players who did Guyana proud over the years.
“Therefore, table tennis has a great future, not only in Guyana but in the Caribbean,” Minister Teixeira said.
The minister pointed out that the region’s countries were not rich but challenged the region to popularise the sport and strengthen it at the community level, especially in the rural areas, even going back to the bottom house.
“We have to return to playing table tennis for the fun of it, for the recreation, so that we have more and more players coming out at the national level,” Minister Teixeira said.
Minister Teixeira added: “We obviously have to strengthen the clubs, not only Georgetown, but across the country, and we have to ensure that table tennis is return to our schools and school system so that more young people can be exposed to the sport.”
The minister said her ministry would like to work with the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) towards this end and through the Guyana-China bi-lateral cooperation, a Chinese coach would brought to this country by yearend to help develop programmes at the community level and assist national teams.
GTTA President Sydney Christophe said he was disappointed that so many teams had not arrived, but that there would still be excellent table tennis.
However, the remarks of the remaining speakers were not audible, at least in the area earmarked for the media.
To add to the woes, the chairman of the proceedings, GTTA Joel Wilburg, some persons on the programme were not present, and he was unaware of this although he faced the invited guests area.
Wilburg proceed to introduce Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Laurie Lewis, who was absent. Director of Sport Neil Kumar and the CARICOM official were also not there.
The programme chairman next introduced the special item, but the performer Ray Copter Anderson did not appear. So Wilburg went straight to president to the Guyana Olympic Association K Juman-Yassin.
Juman-Yassin admonished the Guyana team for not participating in the singing of the National Anthem, during which even a GTTA vice-president was clearly doing something else.
Wilburg then called on the representatives of the sponsors Continental, Beepat, Demerara Distillers Limited and Ansa Mc Al Trading, to make their remarks then interrupted the order to insert the special item.
