Derron Douglas | Spotlight on youth sports

Derron Douglas is firmly focused on doing great things in table tennis. He is 17 years old, is studying at the University of West Indies and is from Signal Hill, Tobago. Derron says he has a love and passion for sports. The competition empowers him, and winning opponents, both foreign and local, brings him great satisfaction.

After growing up in Tobago, he attended Bishop’s High School, where during the break he may be the guy with the jokes, but in class he was focused and interactive and got his job done. Derron has three older sisters, eighteen, twenty-two, and twenty-eight. They don’t play sports, but they are his biggest cheerleaders. He was introduced to table tennis at the age of seven at St.Andrews Anglican Elementary School. He fell in love with the game and played with his classmates under his first coach Emlyn Charles David.

Derron takes training very seriously. He says effective training and consistent discipline have been immeasurable in his success in the game so far. Two of his most important milestones: third in the Under-13 Series at the ITTF World Junior Circuit in Guatemala in 2014; third in the under-21 series at the 2018 Caribbean Championships in Jamaica.

Derron has a passion for traveling and competing abroad. Making new friends, meeting different competitors, and seeing new places has been mind-opening. He has visited Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Germany, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Derrons ’biggest difficulty in table tennis has been funding. He believes that in order for Trinidad and Tobago table tennis players to reach world-class standards, they need to compete internationally and participate in training camps to gain the necessary experience and visibility. In table tennis, the one who first reaches eleven points wins. Derron knows it doesn’t matter if the situation is 10-0. The game isn’t over until someone reaches 11, and there he focuses all the time.

Derron has one goal: to get into the Olympics in the footsteps of the late great Dexter St Louis. Derron wanted to attend the Argentine Olympics earlier this year, but says he was unable to attend due to a lack of funding and a lack of coaching and management support. His focus now is to put everything in place for the next Olympics.

The player Derron is waiting for worldwide is Dimitrij Ovtcharov from Germany. He admires his style, passion for sports and perseverance. While Ovtcharov may be involved in the game, he gives one hundred percent each time. This is imitated by Derron. Locally, Aaron Wilson, a top player in Trinidad and Tobago, is his most challenging competitor. Derron thanks God for getting him this far in table tennis. His coaches, parents, family and supporters have been his biggest motivators and he wants to tell them how much he appreciates them.

Derron says table tennis is a great sport in the world. He wants to be the one who makes people understand its importance. He gives his all and strives to fly the flag of Trinidad and Tobago on the high Olympic platform.