Winston Cowens - file

The Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) has appointed Winston Cowens the new national youth coach of the Jamaican team.

Cowens' appointment follows the sacking of coach Collin McNeish, after Jamaica's third-place finish at last year's Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation Championships, at the University of Technology Auditorium. Barbados won the tournament ahead of Trinidad and Tobago.

"Winston (Cowens) is arguable the best coach that Jamaica has ever produced and he is also responsible for the development of many of our past Olympians," said Keith Garvey, JTTA president.

"He was responsible for the development of table tennis in Montego Bay and he has over three decades of coaching experience," Garvey noted.

Cowens, who is a former Caribbean doubles champion along with Orville Haslam, said he is looking forward to the task at hand.

"My principle is to push them as hard as possible in basic techniques and tactics, get them to focused on what high level sports is about," said Cowens.

The coach's first task will be to guide the national junior teams to this year's Caribbean championships in St Kitts and junior cadet tournament in Antigua.

"I don't think that there will be any major challenges in preparing them for what lies ahead, because I view the training of youngsters as fundamentally one, which includes their technical development," Cowens said.

Ill-fated tournament

National women's champion, Yvonne Foster, at 15, was the only bright spark for the hosts during their ill-fated tournament, as she defeated Ashley Quashie of T&T to win the girls Under-21 title.

However, she was beaten by the eventual champion, 23-year-old Rheann Chung of T&T, in the semi-finals of the open event.

Another Jamaican, Kane Watson, was beaten by Anderson Carrington of Barbados in the boys' Under-21 final.

Despite their home advantage, the Jamaicans also failed to secure a spot in both the male and female open singles finals.