Says Donald Duff
When the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) Pan American championships serves off in Lima, Peru, next month, a South American team will be favoured to win it all.
Brazil has had a rich history of producing world class players such as Hugo Hoyama, a retired Brazilian player of Japanese origin, Claudio Kano, Thiago Monteiro, Gustavo Tsuboi, Liu Guozheng and female player Bruna Takahashi.
This year, another Hugo will lead the Brazilians charge.
Hugo Calderano is a Brazilian native who has taken the table tennis world by storm with victories over some of the world’s top players.
He is presently ranked number-six in the world and the names of the five players above him, easily give an insight into his prowess with a table tennis paddle.
The top three are of course Chinese, led by Fan Zhen Dong with Xu Xin and Ma Long at numbers two and three respectively.
Lin Gaoyuan is at number four, Japan’s Tomakazu Harimoto at number five and Calderano at number six.
The championships will be held from November 13 -19 and COVID 19 protocols are expected to be in place.
Calderano will be supported by Vitor Ishiy, Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi.
The Brazilians will not have it easy as neighbours and perennial rivals Argentina will also be there.
They will be led by Gaston Alto who performed admirably earlier this year at the Latin American Singles and doubles in Rosario, Argentina (Olympic qualification), Horacio Cifuentes, ranked 75th in the world, Santiago Lorenzo and Francisco Sachi.
Three other countries, the United States of America, Canada and Puerto Rico will also be in the reckoning in the men’s team event.
The USA will be led by Kanak Jha, currently ranked number 30 in the world, Canada by Hongtao Chen and Puerto Rico by Bryan Afanador, whom Guyanese table tennis fans will remember from his exploits here a few years ago.
Caribbean country Barbados will also be represented. They will be led by Tyrese Knight while Guyana’s Miguel Wong has qualified for the singles and has been selected on a team which also includes Shemar Britton, Joel Alleyne and Christopher Franklin.
The Guyana men’s team, initially the number one standby team, has been included following the withdrawal of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Among the women’s team, Brazil will again be the favourite team led by Caroline Kumahara, Takahashi and Jessica Yamada.
However, they will be tested by the Puerto Rico team with the outstanding Adriana Diaz leading their charge with support from her sister Melanie, Daniely Rios and Fabiola Diaz.
Guyana will be represented by Olympian Chelsea Edghill along with Trenace Lowe, Natalie Cummings and Jody Ann Blake while Trinidad has named two female players that of Rheann Chung and Brittany Joseph.
Teams from the USA, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and others will also be on show.
