Guyana’s male and female table tennis teams after producing moments of brilliance to advance to the round of 16 of the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia, was knocked out at that very stage after coming up against powerhouses Canada and Singapore, respectively.
Both the male and female teams at the beginning of the day needed to get past Ghana and Vanuatu respectively to keep their hopes alive of advancing in the tournament after both teams had lost to England teams in their opening matches.
For the men, it was a breeze as they defeated Ghana by a 3-1 score line, coming from a match down after Nigel Bryan dropped the first match Derek Abrefa 2-11, 11-9, 2-11, 10 – 12.
For the women however, it took the last game heroics from the youngest member of the team Priscilla Greaves before they advanced with a thrilling 3-2 win over Vanuatu.
Against Ghana, Coach Idi Lewis strategically decided to place Bryan at the top of the order and leave Franklin to pick up the key win later.
The ploy worked as Shemar Britton defeated Felix Lartey 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11 – 8 to keep the South Americans hopes alive.
That victory was followed by wins in the doubles encounter by Bryan and Franklin who defeated Bernard Sam and Abrefa 3-1before wrapped up the tie with a 12 – 10, 11-6, 11 – 7 defeat of Lartey.
It was a much tougher assignment for the female racquet wielders in registering their win over Vanuatu.
Trenace Lowe, like Bryan, dropped the first match to Priscilla Tommy 8-11, 6-11, 7-11 but Natalie Cummings struck back by defeating Stephanie Qwea 11-7, 11-6, 11-5.
The seesaw battle continued where Vanuatu took the doubles matchup in straight sets as Anolyn Lulu, and Tommy outclassed Cummings and Greaves 11-7, 11-9, 11-6.
However the Guyanese lasses took the next two games and the match with Lowe and Greaves producing commanding wins overs Lulu (11-5, 11-9, 11-) and Qwea (11-7, 11-5, 11-3) respectively.
Both teams, however suffered heavy defeats in their round of 16 matches.
Guyana men’s team lost to Canada in straight sets with Britton losing to Zhen Wang 11-7, 11-7, 11-2; Franklin to Mark Medjugorac 11-2, 11-7, 11-6 and Bryan and Franklin to Medjugorac and Antonie Bernadet 15-13, 11-5, 11-7.
Singapore delivered a similar defeat of the local ladies by a 3- 0 margin also.
Lowe lost 3-11, 2-11, and 3-11 to Mengyu Yu while Cummings managed to win a set, over Ye Lin, the third 11-9 after she lost the first 5-11 and the second 2-11. She eventually lost the fourth 4-11.
Lin and Yihan Zhou delivered the final blow to Guyana, defeating Greaves and Cummings 11-2, 11-4, 11-2 to end Guyana’s impressive run at the games.
