THREE-TIME REGIONAL champion Stephen Hylton is back for the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships currently on at the University of Technology (UTech) and also out of retirement.
Hylton, who has been in retirement for the past seven years, says he is only playing in the tournament because of a present demand for players of his calibre in the local team.
The other players are good, he says, but his presence in the team would cause the other Caribbean countries competing to take notice of Jamaica.
"I'm just basically here to make up numbers for this tournament but I am not out of retirement. I was asked to come back and play because I guess they felt I could make a valuable contribution besides, I feel I owe it to the country to help it regain regional supremacy.
"It's not about me as an individual but what we can do together as a team and I will give of myself for something of this nature," he had said on the first day of competition.
Hylton, who was recently elected president of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association, was among the players selected from the national trials held earlier this month.
Since Hylton's return, the confidence of the local players has improved but despite a gallant attempt over the past three days, they have fallen short of accomplishing their goals of winning any of the team titles.
Singles competition is underway but Hylton, who dominated the tables during the 1980s to the mid-1990s, will not be competing.
