This coun­try's prepa­ra­tions for the 2020 Caribbean Re­gion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Fed­er­a­tion (T&TT­TA) Se­niors Cham­pi­onship card­ed for Cu­ba from April 2 to 9 got off to a dis­ap­point­ing start with six of the 14 play­ers list­ed to com­pete in the men and women tri­als be­ing ab­sent when play was called at the Na­tion­al Rack­et Cen­tre, Tacarigua on Sun­day.

The poor turn out of play­ers was main­ly among the men's tri­al­ist with on­ly Arun Roop­nar­ine of Ari­ma Hawks and Queen's Park Ta­ble Ten­nis Club's Der­ron Dou­glas present from the field of sev­en with Cana­da-based David Ma­habir, USA-based Khaleel As­gar­ali, top-ranked lo­cal Aaron Wil­son and Cur­tis Humphreys all un­able to at­tend for dif­fer­ent rea­sons.

When con­tact­ed, T&TT­TA pres­i­dent, David Joseph said Roop­nar­ine and Dou­glas will se­cure two of the four spots on the na­tion­al team for the Caribbean Cham­pi­onship, while the duo will be this coun­try's rep­re­sen­ta­tive at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Sin­gles/Dou­bles Qual­i­fiers in Ar­genti­na from April 15 - 19 as well.

With re­gards to the se­lec­tion of the re­main­ing two play­ers to com­plete the men's team for the Caribbean tour­na­ment, Joseph said, "We are try­ing our best to see how we can get two of the re­main­ing play­ers to com­plete the team.

"We have al­ready been in­formed by Ma­habir that he will not be avail­able for the tour­na­ment, and with the play­ers hav­ing to find their fund­ing to at­tend the Cham­pi­onship in Ha­vana, we are hop­ing to come to a fi­nal se­lec­tion as to the next two play­ers on the team soon."

The women's team will have no such is­sues with on­ly Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han miss­ing out on the tri­als while France-based Rheann Chung, who has been in­volved in a le­gal mat­ter with the as­so­ci­a­tion be­ing ab­sent.

How­ev­er, Joseph was quick to point out that Chung, a for­mer five-time Caribbean sin­gles cham­pi­on was ex­empt­ed from the tri­als and will one of the four mem­bers of the team head­ing to Cu­ba, af­ter an agree­ment rec­om­mend­ed via ar­bi­tra­tion was ad­here too.

She last rep­re­sent­ed T&T at last sum­mer's Pan Amer­i­can Games Ta­ble Ten­nis Tour­na­ment af­ter she qual­i­fied on the third at­tempt at the Latin Amer­i­can Ta­ble Ten­nis Union and North Amer­i­can Ta­ble Ten­nis Union Qual­i­fy­ing Tour­na­ment for the Pan Amer­i­can Games in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

It was a her­culean ef­fort by Chung who was still reel­ing from the pass­ing of her step-fa­ther and men­tor, for­mer na­tion­al and five-time Caribbean men's sin­gles cham­pi­on Dex­ter St Louis a few weeks ear­li­er.

Chung will al­so rep­re­sent T&T at the women's Olympic Sin­gles/Dou­bles Qual­i­fiers in Ar­genti­na along­side two-time na­tion­al women's cham­pi­on Brit­tany Joseph of Queen's Park who topped the women's round-robin tri­als with a per­fect 5-0 record ahead of the Cather­ine Spicer (4-1) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T's Chelsea Fong(3-2) at Tacarigua.

Aleena Ed­wards, a 12-time na­tion­al sin­gles cham­pi­on who has been fo­cussing on coach­ing the ju­nior na­tion­al play­ers in re­cent years end­ed with a 2-3 win-loss mark in the fourth spot fol­lowed by her niece Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor (1-4) of QPCC, and the ab­sent Par­tap-Bood­han who de­fault­ed all her match­es

And for the Caribbean Cham­pi­onship, Chung and Joseph will be joined by Spicer and Fong to form the na­tion­al women's quar­tet.

Mean­while, the 2020 In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny West In­dies Lim­it­ed (ICWI) Sil­ver­bowl Ju­niors Cham­pi­onship will take place on Sat­ur­day, March 7, and Sun­day, March 8, 2020, Tacarigua with more than 220 play­ers en­tered for the tour­na­ment, in­clu­sive of five from neigh­bour­ing Guyana.

Women's Tri­als Re­sults:

Round One:

Brit­tany Joseph (QPCC) bt Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor (QPCC) 11-5, 11-8, 11-5

Chelsea Fong (UTT) bt Aleena Ed­wards (UTT) 11-9, 11-6, 11-5

Cather­ine Spicer bt Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han (War­renville) 11-0, 11-0, 11-0

Round Two

Brit­tany Joseph by Cather­ine Spicer 12-10, 11-8, 11-7

Aleena Ed­wards bt Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor 11-4, 11-5, 11-6

Chelsea Fong bt Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han 11-0, 11-0, 11-0

Round Three

Brit­tany Joseph bt Chelsea Fong 11-3, 11-7, 11-9

Cather­ine Spicer bt Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 14-12

Aleena Ed­wards bt Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han 11-0, 11-0, 11-0

Round Four

Brit­tany Joseph bt Aleena Ed­wards 8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8

Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor bt Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han 11-0, 11-0, 11-0

Cather­ine Spicer bt Chelsea Fong 10-12, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6

Round Five

Brit­tany Joseph bt Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han 11-0, 11-0, 11-0

Cather­ine Spicer bt Aleena Ed­wards 10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7

Chelsea Fong bt Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor 3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 13-11

Men's Tri­als Re­sults

Round One

Arun Roop­nar­ine bt Der­ron Dou­glas 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 5-11, 11-9