JTTA puts back spin on coaches - Ruling body mandates officials to resign immediately

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Keith Garvey, president of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA), has mandated all national table tennis coaches to hand in their resignation with immediate effect.

This move follows Jamaica's disappointing third-place finish at the just-concluded Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation Championships (CRTTF), which ended at the University of Technology on last Friday.

"I think that now is a best time for decision-making because all the programmes and the year is finished and this allows us to make our assessment on how we are going to move forward for next year," said Garvey, in an interview with The Gleaner yesterday.

Garvey said he expects all resignation letters by the end of the week.

"We were satisfied with all aspects of how things was carried out because one of the things that we noticed was some technical deficiencies that came out and if you look at the Under-21 male final and also the team finals, we were up two-love and just couldn't close out the matches," said Garvey.

Garvey added that the association is now in negotiations with a new coach, who he said will assume the responsibility of guiding the national junior programmes for next year's Junior Caribbean Championships in St Kitts and junior Cadet tournament Antigua.

"We are very serious about producing results because I think for the past 10 years, Jamaica have not won any major title at the senior level and what is means now is that we will have to have the right persons pushing juniors, so that in a couple years they will produce very well at seniors," he said.

Clive Grossett, who was appointed interim head coach of the female team, this after Sandra Rietti declined the offer due to personal reasons, said he never expected such a decision.

"I think it is surprising because if he needed the resignation letter from the coaches, then he should have contacted them first before going public with his decision," said Grossett.

The coach added that the poor performance by the female team resulted from insufficient training time and lack of match practice.

"The timing of the tournament was off for us because most of the players were sitting exams and they were also involved in the club league around the country," he said.

National women's champion Yvonne Foster, at 15 years, was the only bright spark for the hosts, as she defeated Ashley Quashie of T&T to win the girls Under-21 title.

However, she was beaten by the eventual champion, 23-year-old Rheann Chung of T&T, in the semi-finals of the open event.

Another Jamaican, Kane Watson, was beaten by Anderson Carrington of Barbados in the boy's Under-21 final.

Despite their home advantage, the Jamaicans also failed to secure a spot in both the male and female open singles finals.

Barbados won the team title ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).