The quality of preparation must match the quality of the opposition.
That’s the view of former Caribbean table tennis king Trevor Farley, who recently returned home from competing at the XX Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Farley, who won the regional singles title in 2002 when Puerto Rico hosted the Caribbean Championships, played the dual role of player/coach of the men’s and women’s team that was part of a squad of 61 athletes under the management of the Barbados Olympic Association.
Farley was also captain of the men’s team that placed ninth, their best ever performance at the Commonwealth Games. It was the first time Barbados had even emerged from the group exchanges at these games.
“We performed well considering the circumstances. We played against professional people. We did well against our Caribbean compatriots in the men’s competition.
“We did better than the last few Commonwealth Games we attended,” Farley told NATIONSPORT following critical comments from Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) personnel regarding the performance of the Barbados teams.
“Beating Trinidad and Jamaica in the group matches said a lot because we have been losing against Trinidad for a number of years, but we fought hard. We badly wanted to win and our level of play rose to fit the occasion,” Farley said.
Barbados were denied a top eight finish after losing to New Zealand in the round of 16 but Farley stressed that many of the countries that participate in these high-level games, New Zealand included, were of a much higher standard because of continued involvement in top-level table tennis.
“We were playing against professional people who play every day and are paid to play. I think we did okay against these type of professionals and I believe that if we had the opportunity to be in that environment for a year or so we would do much better,” he said.
Farley added that the team experienced a few setbacks that affected their performance even before leaving Barbados.
“Our table tennis team was cut in a way that was very detrimental to our performance,” he said.
“Many teams were there with five players, which meant they had reserves that they could bring in. We had to play with three players all the time.”
Table tennis had one of the most demanding schedules of the sports contested with players having to compete as many as three times in one day.
“Being coach and player really took a toll on my playing performance,” said Farley, who at one stage went close to defaulting one of his singles matches because he was on the bench coaching one of the female players.
On that occasion Barbados women’s champion Krystle Harvey defeated the highly-rated Trinidadian Aleena Edwards, who was actually the seeded player in the group.
“At times I had to be coaching and then running off to play a match and that was hard. In the future there is need for a better thought process by the BOA on deciding on the cuts they make for such tournaments because it is really hard in that type of competition to be both player and coach.” Farley said. (PH)
