The team of Chelsea Edghill, Natalie Cummings, Joel Allen and Shamar Britton departed for Rosario Argentina to participate in the regional qualifications for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic. The event will commence today and run until the April 17, 2021.
This qualification is basically to select four players individual males and females from the Latin American regions in addition to two mixed doubles teams.
The event will be done in a knock out format. President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association Godfrey in a statement said, “as you know Chelsea Edghill has been participating in training engagement in Portugal and our other plyers have been training domestically.
“Despite the pandemic the players have really put their minds to the task as they have been taking the necessary precautions and making the necessary sacrifices. In terms of their prospects, I think Chelsea has a great prospect so for her the next step will be the Olympic games. We are hoping that her experience in Portugal will take her a far way in these games. I can say that the players are quite upbeat and are hoping to qualify which would give us international ranking which is key going forward.”
Munroe also noted that it truly has been a herculean task getting the team there, with the pandemic and the cost to travel to Argentina which has recently had a spike in COVID 19 cases. He also went on to state that the team is safe and have already pushed in their first training session and are gearing up for competition. “The team is in high spirits despite being in the bubble, we are coming against higher financed teams and one must be realistic but again I am optimistic of our chances. I believe us stepping out in this regard will help to strengthen our team” Munroe added.
In closing Munroe said, “I want to say and his is not to rub any shoulders, but we have to look how our investments is made in sports in terms of giving our athletes the best chances to succeed, it requires a lot of financial input and strategizing.
“A lot of times the blame is cast at the association’s feet, but there is limited finance to deal with and if we are speaking of an Olympic qualification, Olympic medals, studies would show that it would come at a cost. Hence, we would have to start looking at key structures and systems in place. But overall, I want to give the players a pat on their shoulders for showing their resilience and going out and showing that commitment.”
