Trinidad and Tobago ping pong team leave for Caribbean mini, pre-cadet tourney

Eight national ping pong players will travel to Dominican Republic on June 29 for the 2024 Caribbean Region Table Tennis Federation Mini and Pre-Cadet Championships.

Zayden Sagramsingh, Trent Sampath and Tristan Soomarie fly the red, white and black in the boys’ U11 doubles; Daniel Bhim, Aaron Noel, Mateo Mollineau and Jared Simon contest the boys’ U13 doubles; while Elizabeth Rajah represents in the U13 girls’ doubles.

Curtis Humphreys is the head coach and will be assisted by fellow coaches Dennis La Rose and Edwin Humphreys. Sharon Bravo-Phillip is the manager.

The head coach said the team is ready and excited.

“For some of them, this is their first tournament abroad. This is something they have been training and pratising for for quite some time."

Humphreys said the long-term athlete development (LTAD) programme run by the TT Table Tennis Association (TTTTA), which started last year in collaboration with clubs, has a pool of U11 and U13 players practising.

“This helped us acquire the services at the National Racquet Centre (Tacarigua) where we were able to practice for two weeks – Monday to Friday,” Humphreys said.

He added that the youngsters benefited from having several top players come in to do sparring sessions to enhance their match-readiness.

Humphreys also credited SporTT psychologists who helped the young players strengthen the mental aspect of their respective games.

He said the coaching staff will gather data at this competition to review post-tournament, in an effort to help learn from mistakes and elevate their players’ overall game.

Competition serves off from July 1-7.