00:00Come tomorrow, the Trinidad and Tobago Table Tennis Association Tobago Open
00:04will break a seven-year absence. Approximately 160 participants are set
00:09to take part in the competition. Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago
00:13Table Tennis Association Curtis Humphreys explains that they are aiming
00:17to revive it. We're hoping really, this drive is ready to get back to
00:21table tennis in Tobago, where we'll get back to big unions participating in all
00:28our events. For the last seven to eight years, there has been a significant
00:33decrease in table tennis players from Tobago, both at the recreational and the
00:38national level. So why has it taken seven years for the sport to resume in
00:43Tobago? Tobago Open is supposed to be an annual tournament. It's a tournament that
00:47carries ranking points. It's a national tournament, but because of the lack of
00:52facilities in Tobago for the past couple of years, it was moved to Trinidad, where
00:59it was renamed Trinbago Open. So we're hoping that this sparks a new
01:08life into table tennis in Tobago, so that we'll have not just the Tobago Open,
01:13but we'll have a number of national players and recreational players
01:16continuing to play the sport of table tennis. This tournament is taking place at the
01:21Shore Park Cultural Complex. It's a new facility. We never played there before, so
01:28we're hoping to showcase table tennis in Tobago once again.
01:33Our favorites for the women's singles, we have Imani Edward-Sailor, who is currently
01:38the number one in Trinidad-Tobago women. We have Shema Britton from Guyana, who
01:45will be participating, but we still have our number one player, Yavraj Dukram, to
01:50compete, as well as we have Luke, Arun Rupnarine. We have quite a number of
01:56competitors. Cash prizes, trophies, and bragging rights will be up for grabs.
02:01We have group stages for most of the categories, so the groups will
02:06have normally three to four players. Two persons will come out of each group, and
02:10based on the pool of players, we'll have persons moving from like a last 32,
02:16last 16, last 8, semi-final, final.
02:18The tournament starts tomorrow. Sergio Dufour, TV6 Port.
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