By Kiev Chesney
It was a piece of cake for the Guyana girls’Under-18 female team yesterday even though the 3-2 score line does not reflect it. But Guyana’s girls’ U-18 team defeated Trinidad and Tobago yesterday afternoon to prevent the twin-island republic from nabbing three of the four titles in the team championships of the 13th annual Caribbean Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships which continued yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The Trinidadians had gotten past the Guyana boys’ U-18 team in a tough encounter 3-1 to capture the U-18 category.
Earlier, in the morning play, the Trinidadians won the boys’Under-15 title by defeating Guyana also by a 3-1 margin.
However, T&T could not manage to get past the home team when they reached their third final of the tournament in the U-18 girls’ final.
The heated rivalry between the two powerhouses of Caribbean table tennis in this year’s tournament continued.
This time, however, the home crowd could faithfully place its trust in the hands of two junior Sportswoman-of-the-Year winners Trenace Lowe and Michelle John, while Tiffany Blair appeared as the third link in the chain.
In a keenly contested final Guyana prevailed 3-2 as Lowe and John each claimed individual wins while combining to win in the doubles.
Lowe found no problem humbling the T&T number-one Avonelle Abraham 11-5, 11-8 and 11-0, before she combined with John to crush the pair of Abraham and Ashley Quashie, (who has not lost any of her individual matches) 3-1 in the doubles.
Blair conceded only two losses for the local ladies as she fell to Kristen Scipio and Quashie.
John, then took the table as cool as the other side of the pillow and closed out Kristen Scipio in straight sets, 11-8, 11-5 and 11-3 in the title-clincher.
The T&T boys clinched their country first title in the boys’ U-15 round robin final, as Mathew Pillai, Meshai Pillai and Khadeel Moore dismissed team Guyana with Denzil Hopkinson, Stephan Patoir and Samuel Fraser, the same lineup that had looked sharp in an earlier win against Jamaica.
In the U-18 category, team Guyana’s trio of Warren Hackshaw, Darwin Walcott and Nigel Bryan, found the Trinidadians, coached by Guyanese Dennis La Rose too hot to handle.
The `GT’ boys tried to maintain their momentum gained from a resounding victory against Jamaica the night before, when the home team came from behind, and managed to pull off the victory when all odds were against them, but things did not go their way in the T&T match.
T&T gained control right off the bat as their number one player Kerwin Small, defeated Walcott 3-1.
But Bryan continued to play first class tennis and managed to capture his country’s only win in this encounter when he defeated Kyle Borneo 11-4, 9-11, 11-5 and 11-9.
Hackshaw and Walcott were unsuccessful against T&T’s Zeke Huggins and Kyle Borneo, losing in straight sets 7-11, 9-11 and 8-11.
Hackshaw tried to pull off some last minute heroics against Small, but only managed steal one game before Small prevailed 3-1.
Jamaica’s only girls’ team in this year’s tournament, remained undefeated and raced to victory in the girls U-15 category.
The Jamaicans depended on Yvonne Foster who received much support from teammates Petrina Bogle and Tracy Ann Batadeen.
After two days of play in the team tournament, Trinidad and Tobago won the boys U-15, while Guyana, Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis placed in that order. The girls’ U-15 was won by Jamaica while, Trinidad and Tobago placed second, Guyana placed third, Curacao fourth and St. Kitts fifth. Guyana convincingly won the girls’ U-18 category, while Trinidad placed second and Barbados placed third.
Trinidad defeated second place finishers Guyana to claim the boys’ U-18 title, while Jamaica, Barbados and Curacao finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The tournament continues today with the double and singles rounds of the competition at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
