PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) Andrew Lue says he is extremely proud of the development of his players after the pair of Ajani Spencer and Anthony Bird captured gold on Sunday in the Boys’ Under-11 Team Event at the 2022 Caribbean Region Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) Mini-Cadet (U-11) and Pre-Cadet (U-13) Table Tennis Championship in Guyana.

Playing at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Spencer and Bird defeated Trinidad and Tobago 3-1 in the grand finale on Table 3.

In addition to the gold medal win, Jamaica’s pair of Keeara Whyte and Kayan Denton claimed silver in the Girls’ Under-13 after going down 1-3 to host Guyana in the final on Table 4. Also, the pair of Logan Royes and Gmarco Smith took the bronze medal in the Boys’ Under-13 team event.

“We are extremely proud of the outstanding performances of our young athletes. Ajani and Anthony’s gold medal in the Boys Under-11 Team event takes centre stage but all teams gave medal-winning performances,” Lue told the Jamaica Observer.

Lue said with continued exposure at this level he is confident that players will surely continue to grow.

“We are committed to working for the further development of the athletes and the sport in general. As we commence the singles and doubles events this afternoon [Sunday] we anticipate that the performances will improve even further,” he said.

Lue said that table tennis is traditionally a popular sport in Jamaica but requires greater investment, with the hope of focusing on development.

“With every sport, what we lack is really the resources; we just need more support from the relevant entities and corporate support. We also need to ramp up our fund-raising efforts as we try to push the development of table tennis forward.

“Table tennis has been one of our major sports historically. It is a little on the down side right now, especially with the pandemic and everything, but we know that table tennis is widely regarded across Jamaica as it has a long history of champions,” he said.

— Ruddy Allen