Bajans on show at table tennis camp

JAZEL GRIFFITH and STEPHEN PAYNE. (Philip Hackett)

Thu, June 14, 2012 - 12:02 AM

Jazel Griffith and Stephen Payne go into action today as the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) and the Latin American Table Tennis Union’s (LATTU) Training Camp and Championship starts officially in the Dominican Republic.

The pair left Barbados Tuesday and have already experienced the rigours of the training programme with a pre-breakfast exercise session yesterday morning under the direction of Russian coach Dimitry Yastrebtsev.

Later in the day, they were back on the exercise floor.

“They had three hours of intense table tennis drills, including some exercises designed to teach them how to bear pain,” team manager David Payne told NATIONSPORT by email yesterday. “I guess it’s an essential skill for any top class athlete these days.”

The Under-11 and Under-13 camp and tournament will run until June 20. The camp caters to one boy and one girl from each national federation that falls under the Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF).

The secretariat of the CRTTF is in the Dominican Republic and is headed by president, Juan Vila.

The camp and tournament is designed to assist with enhancing the table tennis skills of the players and improving table tennis throughout the region.

Griffith, who will participate in the Under-11 category, is a student at the DaCosta Edwards Primary School in Belleplaine. She recently gained entry to the Coleridge and Parry Secondary School in the 2012 Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination.

Payne, a silver medallist at the 2011 CRTTF junior championships, attends Queen’s College and will be involved in the Under-13 section of the camp. (PH)