Foreign-based T&T-born athletes Dexter St Louis and Rheann Chung were named the T&T Table Tennis Association (TTTTA) Senior Male and Female Players of the Year for 2014.
The announcements were made at Saturday’s annual awards ceremony hosted by the T&T Table Tennis Association (TTTTA) at the Central Indoor Regional Sports Arena at Saith Park in Chaguanas on Saturday.
St Louis secured a bronze for T&T at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mexico, while Chung secured similar accolades at the Women’s singles, Pan American Sport Festival, Mexico City, Mexico in July; the Women’s Singles, International Table-Tennis Federation (ITTF) Latin American Championships, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (April).
Meanwhile, Aaron Wilson, 16, of Carenage Blasters and Brittany Joseph, 16 of Arima Hawks were named Junior Male and Female Players of the Year. It was reputed to be Joseph’s third Junior Players of the Year Award.
Interviewed, she said, “It’s shocking because I didn’t have such a good year this year. I wasn’t able to win as much prizes as I aimed for, but I was still able to achieve one or two of my goals.”
Wilson said his love of table tennis emerged when he realised that contact sports was not for him and he realised it was “a lot of fun to play.”
Reeza Burke, out-going president of the association said one of the major achievements for his executive was ensuring that “the mantle for representation of our national players on the senior team, being handed over to younger, more talented players. We know that in terms of long term development we are on the right track. Our focus on youth development over that past four years, have reaped rewards not only on the national scene, but also in the Caribbean. In term of challenges”